Univ.of  111.  Library 
9-388 


THE 


GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST 


BY 

ANTHONY  W.  THOROLD,  D.D. 

Lord  Bishop  of  Rochester 

AUTHOR  OF  “the  PRESENCE  OF  CHRIST* * 


author’s  EDITION. 


NEW  YORK 

ANSON  D.  F.  RANDOLPH  & CO. 

gOO  BROADWAY,  COR.  20th  ST 


“ What  we  want  to  make  us  right  is  only  Faith— a 
true,  veritable,  actual  belief  that  God  does  all  things ; 
and  that  the  thing  He  does  is  that  good  thing. 
Then  all  is  right.  What  perplexes  you  is  that 
Christ  is  speaking,  and  you  are  thinking  wrongly. 
Is  it  not  evident  that  we  want  altering,  and  nothing 
else  ? ” 

3-4 


rs 


M 


TO  THE  READER. 


Be  sure  on  taking  up  this  book  to  ask  God  to 
bless  it  to  thy  heart.  When  thou  findest  something 
beyond  thee  or  strange  to  thy  experience,  do  not 
hastily  condemn  it.  Rather  pray  the  Blessed  Spirit 
to  show  thee  if  it  is  agreeable  to  Holy  Scripture, 
and  welcome  anything  that  stirs  thee  to  think  stead- 
ily over  the  only  realities.  On  laying  it  down  turn 
what  has  helped  thee  into  a new  motive  for  good- 
ness and  action,  remembering  that  truth  is  both  a 
power  and  a trust. 


A.  w.  T. 


CONTENTS 


I.  Life, 13 


II.  Grace, 

0 

"3- 

■ 

• 

1 
1 
• 

■ 

III.  Forgiveness, 

74 

IV.  Discipline, 

112 

V.  Sacrifice, 

148 

VI.  Glory, 

0 

00 

w 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

To  facilitate  the  reading  of  this  book  in  small  portions , the 
subjects , as  they  occur , are  noted  in  the  side  notes , and 
the  first  word  of  the  different  sections  is  marked 
by  an  initial  letter . 


7 


Said  I not  unto  thee  that  if  thou  wouldest  believe , 
thou  shouldest  see  the  glory  of  God ? ” 


PREFACE. 


MODERN  critic  of  exquisite  wit  and 
culture,  with  a taste  for  theology, 
^ which  tempts  him  to  make  excur- 
sions into  it,  occasionally  with  more  vivacity 
than  success,  has  defined  “ Salvation  ” to  be 
“ a harmonious  perfection  only  to  be  won  by 
unreservedly  cultivating  many  sides  in  us.” 

St.  Paul  on  the  other  hand  tells  us  that  the 
Saviour's  work  was  “to  redeem  us  from  all 
iniquity  ” ; and  when  we  reflect  on  the  moral 
condition  of  the  world,  and  observe  that  for 
the  countless  millions  the  absorbing  struggle 
is  to  get  bread,  it  becomes  clear,  that  at  least 
some  of  the  sides  in  us,  which,  from  an  artist's 
point  of  view,  need  cultivation,  may  have  a 
long  time  to  wait  for  it. 

Conscience  claims  precedence  of  taste. 
Nevertheless  the  irony  that  sparkles  in  this 

(9) 


10 


PREFACE. 


sentence  should  not  blind  us  to  the  truth  that 
it  contains. 

Gospel  is  a large  word ; and  if  it  really  is 
what  it  calls  itself,  it  should  be  able  to  tell  us, 
not  only  how  to  escape  penalties,  but  how  to 
win  righteousness ; how  to  live,  as  well  as  how 
to  die ; what  we  may  enjoy,  as  well  as  what 
we  must  surrender.  Surely  it  is  a morose 
religionism  that  fears  knowledge,  or  distrusts 
science,  or  condemns  music,  or  despises  art. 
All  these  things  have  been,  are,  ought  to  be, 
and  will  be  used,  and  perhaps  increasingly,  as 
handmaids  of  the  Church's  ministry,  and  for 
the  innocent  delight  of  the  intelligent.  Only, 
they  do  not  make  Heaven,  or  reveal  God. 

We  are  bound,  according  to  our  opportu- 
nities, to  make  the  best  of  ourselves,  and  to  be 
complete.  To  suppose  that  faculties  have 
been  given  us,  which  we  are  not  meant  to 
employ,  or  tastes  which  it  is  unsuitable  to 
cultivate,  is  to  accuse  our  Maker  of  injustice 
and  folly.  The  Gospel  nowhere  discourages 
our  being  complete ; but  it  would  have  our 
perfection  in  due  equipoise  and  order.  Each 
man’s  own  spirit  ought  to  be  a well-furnished 
kingdom,  in  which,  with  a dignity  that  will 


PREFACE. 


1 1 

ever  he  in  exact  proportion  to  his  self-culture, 
he  will  bear  the  burden  of  his  own  being,  and 
lend  a helping  hand  for  his  neighbour’s. 

Life  too,  the  patient  and  universal  teacher, 
has  its  various  zones  of  experience,  and  in 
each  of  them  we  are  at  school  with  our 
Father.  Sometimes  we  feel  to  be  dwelling 
in  a sluggish  lagoon  oozing  through  sunny 
flats  of  marsh  and  osier  beds.  Then  the  scene 
changes,  and  it  is  an  alpine  valley,  where  jag- 
ged peaks  lose  themselves  in  frozen  vapour, 
and  gloomy  ravines,  never  rosy  with  the  dawn, 
depress  us  with  their  indescribable  solitude. 

Let  us  be  sure  that  our  Heavenly  Father 
speaks  to  us  all  in  turn,  as  and  when  we  need 
Him.  We  will  listen  to  His  voice  and  humbly 
cherish  it,  for  His  messages  are  not  to  be  kept 
secret,  but  to  be  passed  on.  Single  souls, 
who  have  to  work  out  our  own  salvation,  we 
are  also  incorporated  into  the  Communion  of 
Saints.  By  truth  as  well  as  by  conduct  we 
are  to  be  “ members  one  of  another  ” ; and 
what  it  is  a joy  to  possess,  it  may  be  a sin  to 
conceal. 

Selsdon  Park,  Croydon, 

December  30,  1881. 


I. 


LIFE. 

INTRODUCTION. 


“this  is  the  record,  that  god  hath  given  unto  us  eternal 

LIFE  ; AND  THIS  LIFE  IS  IN  HIS  SON.” 

“ When  I speak  of  Eternal  Life , I mean  nothing 
else  than  that  life  which  is  in  God , which  makes 
God  to  be  infinitely  blessed.  To  say  that  God 
gives  man  Eternal  Life , is  to  say  that  God  gives 
man  to  partake  of  that  which  is  His  own  blessed- 
ness y 


HO  understands  these  , y . 

, , , . , Introduction . 

words,  or  believes  them, 
or  much  more,  uses  them?  Under- 
stands them  in  their  inexhaustible  profound- 
ness, pursues  them  into  their  final  issues,  be- 
lieves them  in  their  ineffable  gladness,  uses 
them  for  their  supernatural  grace  ? They  are 
so  deep,  that  no  one  has  ever  plumbed  them ; 
so  full,  that  theology,  which  is  simply  the 
Church’s  growth  in  the  apprehension  of  the 


14 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


Divine  mind  and  will,  is  virtually  anticipated 
in  them  ; so  wonderful,  that  most  men  pass 
them  by  as  too  good  to  be  true;  so  potent 
with  life  and  grace,  that  the  Christian  has 
often  to  ask  himself  if  they  are  really  meant 
for  him.  Plainly,  if  they  are  true,  they  are 
the  entire  Gospel ; containing  all  we  need  to 
know  about  God,  and  Christ,  and  ourselves ; 
not  what  may  be  ours  to-morrow,  but  what  is 
given  to  us  to-day — whether  we  know  or  care. 

DHAT  is  this  life?  Not  of 

course  physical.  Though  ature  ° 
all  life  is  essentially  one  in  its  source,  because 
ultimately  derived  from  the  creative  force  of 
God  and  continually  sustained  by  His  will. 
An  oyster  spat,  and  a Bengal  tiger,  Shake- 
speare conceiving  “ Othello/’  and  the  angel  of 
the  Apocalypse,  whose  face  was  as  the  sun, 
and  his  feet  as  pillars  of  fire,  severally  repre- 
sent life,  as  He  creates  and  manifests  it  in  the 
organs  where  He  wills  it  to  be.  The  life  of 
the  intellect  and  the  senses  had  already  de- 
veloped and  exhausted  itself  before  Christ 
was  born.  No  one  has  ever  surpassed  Plato 
for  serene  and  profound  speculation.  No  one 


LIFE. 


15 


has  tried  harder  than  Tiberius  to  drain  the 
possibilities  of  wicked  enjoyment,  or  better 
succeeded  in  finding  it  to  be  Hell.  St.  John 
is  speaking  of  the  life  of  the  Spirit ; which,  of 
course,  existed  among  men  before  the  Incar- 
nation, though  imperfectly,  and  with  limita- 
tions. “ I am  come,”  said  Christ,  “ that  they 
might  have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it 
more  abundantly  ” [johnx.ioj. 


HIS  life  is  spiritual,  having  The  ufe 
its  scope  and  residence  in  spiritual. 
man's  spirit.  Its  birth-time  is  regeneration, 
its  condition  faith,  its  evidence  holiness,  its 
outcome  the  invisible  Church,  the  pattern  of 
its  conduct  Christ's  human  life  on  earth.  In 
essential  accordance  with  individual  faculty 
and  character,  it  finds — ordained  for  it  by  the 
wisdom  of  the  Divine  Sovereignty — its  mani- 
fold types  of  existence,  modes  of  expression, 
occasions  of  growth,  measures  of  grace.  Like 
all  other  kinds  of  life,  it  has  its  eras  and  crises 
and  transitions.  Yet  its  youth  is  not  of  ne- 
cessity immature  or  hysterical,  and  its  riper 
years  must  expect  no  immunity  from  surprises 
or  decay.  Its  law  is  progress,  its  liberty  obe- 


1 6 THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

dience,  its  strength  the  joy  of  God,  its  wine 
hope,  its  beauty  meekness.  It  is  at  its  best 
when  it  hungers  for  God  Himself  above  and 
beyond  His  ordinances  or  His  gifts,  His  un- 
veiled face  or  His  felt  presence.  Severe  with 
itself,  it  is  gentle  and  tender  with  others ; 
most  healthy  when  least  self-conscious ; ef- 
fecting most  when  it  feels  that  but  little  is 
done. 

■T  is  also  eternal.  There  is 

a great  deal  about  eternal  Eternal' 
life  in  the  Bible.  St.  John  tells  us  that  “it 
was  with  the  Father,  and  was  manifested  unto 
us”  [i John i. 2].  He  had  seen  it.  Christ  Him- 
self says  about  it,  that  it  consists  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  Father,  and  of  Himself  as 
sent  by  the  Father,  and  revealing  Him.  In- 
deed, it  is  the  life  which  God  Himself  lives, 
in  which  He  has  willed,  created,  and  loved 
from  all  Eternity,  whose  thought  is  truth,  and 
its  effect  light  and  its  nature  love.  As  truth 
it  contains,  declares,  is  the  expression  and 
idea  of  all  things.  As  light  it  is  the  manifest- 
ing power,  which  doth  and  must  make  mani- 
fest by  the  very  force  and  acting  of  its  nature. 


LIFE. 


17 


As  love,  it  is  that  which  cannot  be  content 
with  its  own  separate  existence  and  felicity, 
but  which  finds  its  joy  and  satisfaction  even 
at  the  cost  of  unspeakable  sacrifice,  in  going 
out  of  itself  to  do,  give,  or  suffer  for  others. 
As  it  relates  to  God,  it  is  His  very  own  life, 
and  light,  and  blessedness,  the  formal  though 
inadequate  expression  of  His  energy  and  per- 
fections. As  it  refers  to  man,  it  is  Divine 
truth  for  his  understanding,  to  quicken  and 
penetrate  it ; Divine  righteousness  for  his 
conscience,  bringing  God  to  deal  with  him, 
and  speak  face  to  face  with  him  there ; Di- 
vine power  for  his  will  to  subdue  and  trans- 
form it ; Divine  love  to  his  heart,  showing 
him  how  he  is  loved,  and  enabling  him  to  love 
in  return.  A life,  moreover,  about  which  it 
has  been  said  by  One,  who  knows,  that  we 
cannot  dispense  with  it.  “ Except  a man  be 
born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom  of 

God  [1  John  iii.  3]. 

pISHIS  eternal  life  is  the  gift  TheGiftof 
ct.ctI  of  God.  Here  is  the  Gos-  G°d- 
pel  in  a single  sentence.  We  can  earn  death 
if  we  will — “ The  wages  of  sin  is  death  ” — 


2 


j8  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

[Rom.  vi.  23].  But  the  apostle  adds  that  life,  if 
had  at  all,  must  be  had  through  giving.  It  is 
given,  and  no  impracticable  conditions  modify 
its  freeness,  diminish  its  fulness,  or  dilute  its 
joy.  It  is  given  by  God,  who  knows  what 
He  is  doing,  and  those  for  whom  He  is  doing 
it ; Who  does  not  give  away  either  what  does 
not  exist,  or  what  does  not  belong  to  Him  ; 
Who,  though  He  never  forces  His  gifts  on 
any  one,  will  do  His  best  to  persuade  and  help 
us  to  receive  them  ; Who  waits,  and  hopes, 
and  continually  watches  over  us,  lest  we  re- 
ceive them  in  vain.  What  is  even  more  to 
the  purpose,  the  gift  is  not  something  that 
may  be  given,  or  shall  be : it  has  been  given . 
While  we  are  right  to  expect  for  its  growing 
development,  and  entire  fruition,  the  gift  is 
ours  now,  so  far  as  the  giving  it  can  make  it 
so,  and  it  is  for  us  to  decide,  when  we  choose 
to  possess  it,  by  claim  and  use. 

T is  a gift  for  the  race,  a gift  for  the 

“ God  so  loved  the  world,”  race- 

said  Jesus  to  the  Pharisee  [John  m.  iq.  St.  John 
elsewhere  explains,  “ He  is  the  propitiation 
for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also 


LIFE. 


19 


for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world  ” [Uotmii.  i].  A 
gospel  indeed ! This  is  a wonderful  truth 
seldom  and  imperfectly  comprehended,  stir- 
ring questions  which  we  need  not  fear  to  dis- 
please God  by  reverently  wishing  to  get  an- 
swered, though,  indeed,  He  is  not  bound  to 
answer  them,  if  we  cannot  comprehend  the 
answer ; involving  also  the  tremendous  re- 
sponsibility of  the  Church  as  her  Lord’s 
spouse  and  witness  for  a world,  which  He  was 
crucified  to  save.  There  is  an  odd  confusion 
in  many  minds  between  the  entirely  distinct 
acts  of  giving  and  receiving,  and  the  notion 
prevails  that  unless  a gift  is  accepted,  it  has 
not  actually  been  bestowed.  But  the  giver’s 
purpose  and  act  are  one  thing ; his,  to  whom 
he  gives,  another.  While  it  is  true  that  a gift 
cannot  actually  become  ours  till  we  have  per- 
sonally appropriated  it,  the  fact  that  it  has 
been  placed  at  our  disposal,  means  a responsi- 
bility about  it  which  we  can  neither  modify 
nor  escape.  The  title  deeds  of  our  eternal 
inheritance  are  placed  at  any  rate  before  those 
who  hear  the  Gospel.  While  God  willeth  all 
men  to  be  saved,  He  forces  Himself  on  none. 


20 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


aIM|HIS  We  is  in  His  Son.”  This  life  is  in 
Ira.iill  Now,  do  you  wonder  that  Christ. 
the  Church  declares  so  resolutely,  and  holds 
so  tenaciously,  the  Godhead  of  Christ  ? “ As 

the  Father  hath  life  in  Himself,  so  hath  He 
given  to  the  Son  to  have  life  in  Himself  ” 
[John v.  26>  Surely  we  may  ask,  how  could  Eter- 
nal life  be  said  to  be  in  Him,  were  He  only 
man  ? This  life  resides  in  His  Incarnate  Per- 
son, and  while  it  comes  to  us  through  our 
spiritual  union  with  Him,  it  is  maintained  and 
nourished,  and  enlarged,  and  matured  in  us, 
in  exact  proportion  to  the  vitality  and  close- 
ness of  our  fellowship.  Personal,  vital,  con- 
scious fellowship  with  Christ  means,  and  im- 
parts everything,  both  of  the  life  we  enjoy, 
the  grace  we  receive,  the  communion  we  par- 
take, and  the  security  we  possess.  To  those 
out  of  Christ  nothing  is  promised.  In  Him 
we  have  the  fulness  of  God. 


pSjjUT  how  is  this  life  impart-  Howitisim- 
1.S1  ed,  and  how  does  the  soul  parted. 
assimilate  it,  and  how  is  the  Church  to  pass  it 
on  the  world  ? 

God,  who  has  made  body,  soul,  and  spirit, 


LIFE. 


21 


recognizes  what  He  has  made,  in  His  methods 
of  visiting  us ; neither  ignores  the  senses  in 
educating  the  spirit ; nor  the  material  in  ap- 
proaching the  invisible.  There  is  the  WORD 
by  which  He  conveys  the  ideas,  and  principles, 
and  promises,  and  precepts  of  the  Gospel  to 
the  understanding.  The  SACRAMENTS  have 
been  ordained  to  be  the  objective,  effective, 
and  continuous  signs  and  seals  of  His  grace 
to  faithful  souls.  In  the  COMMUNION  OF 
Saints,  by  contact  of  ideas,  interchange  of 
experience,  and  the  holy  beatitude  of  common 
worship  the  faithful  mutually  edify  each  other 
into  the  One  Body  of  Christ. 

What  Holy  Scripture  was  to  the  human 
soul  of  our  Lord*  the  Gospels  indicate ; but 
few  of  us,  judging  from  our  conduct,  ade- 
quately appreciate  it.  Evidently  it  was  His 
habitual  solace  and  delight,  the  invisible  and 
delectable  food  of  His  vexed  and  weary  spirit, 
the  sword  and  shield  of  His  continual  resist- 
ance to  the  Tempter,  the  shadow  of  a great 
rock  in  the  weary  land  of  His  life.  In  noth- 
ing is  the  example  of  Christ  more  notable  or 


* See  “ Gospel  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,”  chapter  iii. 


22 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


important,  than  the  way  in  which  He  quoted 
Scripture  and  appealed  to  it,  whether  to  re- 
fute or  confirm.  “ Ye  do  err,  not  knowing  the 
Scriptures '' [Mutt. xxii.  29]  was  (to  the  Jews)  His 
touchstone  of  error  [Matt.  iv.<r  “It  is  written  ” 
(in  His  Temptation),  was  the  foundation  that 
made  Him  sure.  “ Being  born  again,  by  the 
Word  of  God,”  here  is  St.  Peters  account  of 
the  regenerating  power  of  the  Word  of  Inspi- 
ration [ipet. i: 233.  “Faith  cometh  by  hearing, 
and  hearing  by  the  Word  of  God,”  is  St* 
Paul’s  account  of  it  to  the  mixed  Church  at 
Rome  [Rom.  x.  i7].  But  the  Sacraments  are  the 
solemn  ordinances  of  Christ  for  the  Church  of 
which  He  is  the  head.  Nothing  is  more  in 
telligible  than  the  controversy  which  for  so 
many  generations  has  raged  with  more  or  less 
intenseness  over  their  right  value  and  use. 
No  religious  system  that  fails  to  combine  a 
reverent  appreciation  of  the  Sacraments,  as 
Divinely  ordered  means  of  grace,  with  a clear 
and  unyielding  demand  for  a personal  faith 
rightly  and  dutifully  to  receive  them,  will  ever 
adequately  reconcile  the  plain  statements  of 
Scripture,  or  satisfy  the  religious  instincts  of 
mankind. 


LIFE . 


23 


N Baptism  God  admits  us 


Baptism. 


into  visible  fellowship  with 
Himself,  seals  to  us  our  adoption  to  be  sons, 
welcomes  us  into  the  vast  household  of  faith, 
embraces  us  with  the  arms  of  His  mercy, 
pledges  to  us  all  the  favour,  help,  and  protec- 
tion we  can  ever  need,  incorporates  us  into 
the  Body  mystical  of  His  Son.  It  is  as  if  He 
spake  as  follows : “ My  redeemed  children,  at 
the  earliest  possible  moment,  I invite  you  to 
be  at  home  in  my  heart.  I will  care  for  you, 
and  watch  over  you,  speak  to  you  as  soon  as 
you  can  understand  me,  and  gradually  instruct 
you  as  you  are  able  to  receive  my  truth.  It 
is  a big  house  into  which  I admit  you,  with 
many  rooms  in  it,  and  those  whom  you  will 
meet  are  of  all  sorts,  ages,  and  degrees.  That 
you  are  here  at  all  is  both  a mark  of  my  love, 
which  you  will  do  well  to  remember,  and  a 
pledge  of  my  grace,  which  some  day  you  may 
be  glad  to  plead.  I am  your  Father  to  begin 
with,  through  my  love,  not  your  worthiness. 
Let  my  name  soothe,  and  guide,  and  convince, 
and  sustain  you  in  dark  hours  to  come.  Prove 
yourselves  my  children  by  your  dutiful  and 
ready  obedience ; and  you  will  find  that  your 


24 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 


baptismal  privilege  covers  and  implies  all  your 
life  can  need.” 

Holy  Commun-  The  Lord  s Supper  is  a per- 
ion-  petual  memorial  of  His  Atoning 

Sacrifice,  a feast  of  praise  and  thanksgiving, 
a special  means  of  uniting  with  His  Glorified 
Person,  through  the  food  of  His  body  slain 
upon  the  Cross,  for  all  who  humbly  cleave  to 
Him,  the  dear  promise  of  His  glorious  return 
Here  we  receive  our  Saviour  into  our  hearts, 
once  more  to  hear  the  Gospel  of  our  pardon, 
to  get  our  will  stirred,  our  conscience  cleansed, 
our  hunger  fed,  our  will  invigorated  for  duty 
and  conflict,  our  hearts  consoled  with  the  as- 
surance of  His  most  precious  love.  If  about 
this  Sacrament  there  is  a superstitious  faith, 
which  we  must  repudiate,  there  may  be  also  a 
feeble  and  limp  faith,  which  may  not  be  far 
from  sin.  If  only  our  will  is  towards  Him, 
and  we  hold  fast  by  His  Word,  our  dulness  or 
chilliness,  at  the  moment  of  approaching  His 
table,  shall  not  discredit  His  everlasting 
promise : “ My  flesh  is  meat  indeed,  and  my 
blood  is  drink  indeed”  [John vi. 553. 


LIFE . 


25 


ilHEN  there  is  the  Com- 


Communion  of 


munion  of  Saints,  where-  Saints. 
by  through  the  atmosphere,  ideal,  and  activity 
of  the  corporate  life  of  the  Church,  the  per- 
sonal life  of  each  separate  member  is  quick- 
ened, edified,  and  matured.  We  Christians 
of  this  modern  time*  cannot  even  guess  how 
we  grieve  Christ,  surprise  the  angels,  defraud 
our  brethren,  and  impoverish  ourselves  by 
reserve  and  unsociableness  and  mental  slug- 
gishness about  our  most  holy  faith.  Had  the 
Apostolic  age  had  to  steer  the  Church  through 
ice-fields,  as  we  have,  her  influence  might  never 
have  penetrated  beyond  the  basin  of  the  Med- 
iterranean. If  converts  in  our  mission  fields 
to-day  were  to  be  chilled  by  our  apathy,  or 
paralyzed  by  our  reserve,  one  of  the  Church's 
greatest  motive  forces  would  be  lost.  It  is 
not  indeed  religious  gossipping  that  we  want, 
nor  facile  chattering  at  all  times  and  places  over 
the  mysteries  of  God,  nor  unbecoming  self- 
revelations, nor  egotistic  confessions — so  often 
but  sly  traps  for  praise — but,  if  we  would  be 
Christians  of  the  Pauline  type,  we  need  more 


* See,  for  a further  development  of  this  subject,  cap. 
iii.,  p.  93. 


26  . THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

of  a direct  personal  Christianity  in  our  individ- 
ual friendships,  more  readiness  for  the  reading 
of  God’s  Word  with  intimate  friends  and  neigh- 
bours, more  seeking  and  using  of  opportuni- 
ties of  taking  and  giving  help  and  comfort  in 
the  discipline  of  goodness,  in  imparting — as 
the  best  treasures  we  possess,  and  therefore 
cannot  but  share  — what  God  Himself  has 
taught  us,  and  experience  has  confirmed,  how 
to  enjoy  His  presence  and  His  Word.  Then 
heart  fires  heart,  and  two  disciples  find  a third 
to  join  them  whose  form  is  like  the  Son  of 
God. 


MONG  the  chief  helps  to 

. Helps  to  life. 

the  enjoyment  and  expan- 
sion of  this  life  first  comes  knowledge,  all 
knowledge  indeed  that  is  solid,  innocent,  and 
suitable.  For  all  knowledge  being  more  or 
less  a revelation  of  God,  whether  in  His  attri- 
butes or  character,  just  so  far  as  it  is  appre- 
hended exactly  and  imparted  intelligently,  is 
not  only  of  Him,  but  for  Him.  When  only 
secular,  as  we  say,  still  its  use  in  the  spiritual 
life  is  evident,  since  it  helps  us  to  equipoise 
its  forces,  and  to  develop  them,  and  to  put 


LIFE. 


2 7 


them  to  the  best  use,  thereby  protecting  us 
from  a sour  intellectual  narrowness  on  the 
one  hand,  and  a too  supple  emotionalism  on 
the  other.  In  Divine  things,  it  helps  us  to 
bear  witness  to  men  outside  of  what  God  is, 
and  is  doing,  as  living  in  and  speaking  through 
His  children.  It  might  also  save  some  among 
us  from  a mournful  and  even  bitter  depression, 
through  widening  for  them  into  something  of 
its  glorious  vastness,  the  true  horizon  of  the 
mind  of  God,  and  showing  them  how  He  is 
higher  than  our  thoughts,  broader  than  our 
creeds,  vaster  than  our  plans,  and  older  than 
our  years.  Then  there  is  work,  on  which  I 
would  say  only  a brief  word  here.  God  is 
energy,  incessant,  unwearied,  and  beneficent. 
“ My  Father  worketh  hitherto  ” [John  v.  17 i;  and 
if  we  would  be  in  fellowship  with  His  life,  we 
must  be  at  work  too.  What  exercise  is  to 
the  body,  duty  is  to  the  spirit,  all  duty ; 
whether  of  this  life,  or  the  next.  Ours  is  but 
a single  personality ; and  in  whatever  He  lays 
upon  us  to  do,  God  has  but  one  motive,  and 
one  method.  Duty  keeps  the  conscience 
awake,  goads  the  sluggish  will,  shames  us 
out  of  selfishness,  shakes  us  out  of  laziness, 


28  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 

best  of  all  compels  us  to  the  discipline  of 
self. 

Once  more,  God  is  love ; and 

Devotion . . . . . . . t 

towards  the  tuller  possession  and 

fruition  of  this  life,  there  is  but  one  straight 
road,  devotion.  Other  things  are  good  and 
useful ; one  is  vital.  Heart-communion  with 
God.  We  may  well  fear  that  not  only  the 
world,  but  the  Church  also,  is  growing  too 
busy  to  pray.  O let  us  not  tumble  into  that 
snare,  or  our  spiritual  life  may  not  be  worth 
a year’s  purchase.  What  we  want  we  ask  for ; 
and  what  we  ask  for,  we  get ; no  more.  Our 
Saviour’s  company  may  be  worth  much  or 
little  ; this  is  certain,  and  it  covers  the  entire 
area  of  our  life,  that  it  is  not  won  in  a day  ; 
nor  can  even  a year’s  prayers  help  us  to  reach 
the  summit  of  our  spiritual  Pisgah  to  survey 
Canaan  at  our  feet.  The  spiritual  life  of 
which  we  speak  is  like  some  vast  and  elevated 
table  land,  which  we  do  not  reach  by  admir- 
ing it  from  afar,  nor  win  at  a bound,  nor  ap- 
prehend by  a week’s  sorrow.  Natures  differ, 
and  some  fruits  ripen  faster  than  others,  ac- 
cording to  soil  and  sunshine  and  air.  Eternal 
life  also  has  its  laws  of  expansion  in  the  regen- 


LIFE . 


29 

erate  spirit ; and  it  can  grow  only  through 
prayer. 

jl^MONG  the  hindrances  to  Hindrances  to 
life,  I will  name  religious  life- 
egotism  first.  In  personal  religion  both  the 
objective  and  subjective  elements  claim  recog- 
nition : and  a characteristic  preponderance  of 
one  over  the  other  must,  within  due  limits,  be 
expected  and  allowed.  But  we  should  guard 
against  a want  of  symmetry  and  proportion 
between  one  feature  and  another.  Of  course 
conscious  union  with  God  lies  at  the  root  of 
it ; yet  if  there  is  too  much  introspection  in 
it,  too  frequent  a comparing  of  yesterday's 
feelings  with  to-day’s,  too  keen  a sensitiveness 
about  tiny  faults,  or  incomplete  duties,  what 
will  happen  ? Our  own  goodness  will  insen- 
sibly take  the  place  of  Christ’s  righteousness 
as  our  ground  of  peace.  His  precious  blood 
will  insensibly  lose  its  power  of  healing  the 
wounds  of  sin.  Our  whole  moral  nature  will 
become  flabby  and  nerveless.  We  shall  lose 
our  tight  grip  of  those  grand  central  facts  and 
verities,  which,  like  a grand  mountain  range 
shutting  in  a shadeless  and  dusty  plain,  are 


30 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


guides  to  the  pilgrim,  and  shadows  from  the 
storm,  and  cisterns  of  living  waters  to  make 
glad  the  City  of  God.  Not  what  I think  of 
God,  but  what  God  is  in  Himself  is  what 
touches  my  salvation.  Not  what  I feel  to 
Him,  but  what  He  means  for  me  is  the  living 
charter  of  my  hope.  To  know  and  believe 
the  love  God  hath  to  us,  and  in  the  strength 
of  it  to  go  on  day  by  day  till  we  see  Him — 
here  is  the  faith  of  men. 


tinctly  warn.  Gently,  for  the  peril  -has  a 
blessed  side  to  it,  which  some  of  us  may 
envy  ; distinctly,  for  just  through  its  blessed- 
ness it  may  fail  to  be  seen.  Ours  are  emi- 
nently devotional  times  of  weekly,  even  daily 
communions,  frequent  spiritual  retirements, 
personal  intercourse  with  religious  advisers  of 
the  most  unreserved  character,  in  a word  (I 
hope  not  a harsh  one),  of  incessant  spiritual 
luxuries,  of  which  neither  our  fathers,  nor 
their  fathers,  ever  dreamed,  but  without  which 
they  still  contrived  both  to  do  and  to  suffer  a 
good  deal  for  Christ. 


Unwise  use  of 

Christian 

ordinances. 


But  in  close  connection  with 
this  is  yet  another  peril  against 
which  I would  gently  but  dis- 


LIFE . 


31 


Let  us  judge  no  man.  Let  us  not  presume 
to  thrust  our  own  standard  of  what  is  good  for 
us  on  the  consciences  of  our  brethren.  We 
are  free.  Let  us  be  free. 

Still  I caution.  Let  us  be  jealously  on  our 
guard  against  whatever  may  tend  to  put  the 
ordinances  of  Christ  in  the  place  of  Christ,  as 
if  they  were  the  indispensable  ducts  of  His 
grace,  not  to  be  had  without  them.  Christ 
and  Christ  alone  is  the  food  of  man.  “ I am 
the  bread  of  life  ” [John  vi.  35].  It  is  quite  true 
that  He  has  been  pleased  to  appoint  certain 
ordinances,  as  channels  of  Himself,  but  He  is 
neither  bound  to  them  nor  confined  by  them. 
Sometimes,  therefore,  He  has  to  vindicate  His 
own  honour,  by  leaving  His  people  in  the 
wilderness,  and  souls  pampered  with  unwise 
provision  have  a sad  though  needful  famine, 
when  their  accustomed  ministries  fail.  Some 
stand  the  test,  but  you  can  count  them  on  the 
fingers  of  two  hands.  Others,  who  have  over- 
stimulated  their  life  by  the  use  of  strong  cor- 
dials, find  it  a weary  journey  back  to  Jacob's 
well,  where  the  Saviour  with  His  own  hands 
once  more  dispenses  to  them  the  water  of 
life. 


32 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


Spiritual  pride. 


Of  one  other  hindrance,  spirit- 
ual pride,  I would  speak,  in  its 
two  common  forms,  of  isolation  and  self-con- 
ceit. Isolation,  the  deliberate  undervaluing 
of  the  fellowship  of  Christ's  mystical  body, 
either  in  a chilly  unsociableness,  or  a morbid 
dread  of  infection,  will  tell,  and  more  seriously 
than  we  suspect,  on  the  vigour  and  fruitful- 
ness of  the  soul.  Some  sorts  of  avrapxeia 
are  fatal.  They  mean  the  loss  of  that  vital 
spiritual  heat  which  is  generated  by  the  public 
assemblies  of  the  faithful  ; of  that  wide  and 
instructive  interchange  of  thought  and  expe- 
rience (see  p.  99)  whereby  prejudice  is  cor- 
rected, ignorance  remedied,  duty  suggested, 
sympathy  stirred ; of  that  opportunity  of 
passing  on  to  others  what  we  humbly  believe 
our  Master  has  entrusted  to  us  — not  to  be 
kept  hid ; of  that  wholesome  regimen,  of  nat- 
ural but  perilous  self-love,  which  whether  in 
the  idolatry  of  our  own  opinions,  or  in  our 
sturdy,  almost  contemptuous  dislike  of  other 
men’s,  works  like  dry  rot  in  the  Church.  “ Yet 
none  of  us  liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man  dieth 
to  himself”  [Rom.xiv.7].  It  was  said  of  rpan  in 
Paradise,  “ It  is  not  good  for  man  to  be 


LIFE. 


33 


alone”  [Gen.n. is].  If  we  will  be  alone,  we  must 
take  the  consequences,  which  are  serious. 
From  spiritual  pride  in  some  form  or  other, 
who  is  quite  free  ? All  of  us  are  tempted  in 
turn  to  be  intolerant  of  other  men’s  methods, 
over -critical  of  eccentric  types  of  goodness, 
doubtful  about  unfamiliar  formulas,  hasty  to 
look  askance  at  liberty  we  deny  ourselves, 
merely  because  it  would  hurt  us,  and  almost 
to  refuse  credence  to  a spiritual  life  that 
seems  to  live  in  another  zone.  Yet  let  us  be 
humble  and  full  of  charity.  God  fulfils  Him- 
self in  many  ways,  and  what  satisfies  Him  may 
be  enough  for  His  servants.  Nay,  were  any- 
one to  say  that  certain  minds  are  so  consti- 
tuted as  to  be  incapable  of  a high  type  of 
spiritual  vitality,  I for  one  should  not  care  to 
contradict  him.  Outward  circumstances,  diffi- 
cult functions  of  life,  pressure  of  secular  cares, 
which  we  do  not  create,  and  yet  must  not 
evade,  inevitably  modify  the  outward  features 
of  personal  religion,  and  make  it  harder  than 
most  of  us  suspect.  No  doubt,  as  the  apostle 
says,  “ He  that  is  spiritual  judgeth  all  things, 
and  He  Himself  is  judged  of  no  man”  [i  cor. 
iii.  i5j,  nevertheless  we  must  be  careful  to  judge 
3 


34 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


as  those  who  will  themselves  be  judged. 
Above  everything,  never  let  us  suffer  our 
spiritual  religion,  either  in  the  language  that 
professes  it,  or  in  the  features  that  indicate  it, 
to  outstrip  our  moral  life.  For  more  swiftly 
and  surely  than  the  deadly  dews  of  the  Pana- 
ma swamps  on  the  European  traveller,  will 
the  faintest  mildew  of  insincerity  poison  the 
springs  of  the  soul.  As  for  society  it  does 
not  forbid,  or  altogether  dislike  spiritual  re- 
ligion in  its  proper  place.  It  expects  and  in 
a way  admires  it.  But  it  is  very  uncompro- 
mising in  its  demand  for  consistency.  It  will 
have  reality,  and  it  is  right. 

If,  with  our  lofty  profession  and  high  aims, 
and  multiplied  exercises,  there  be  found  small 
infirmities,  hard  resentments,  insufficient  self- 
control,  palpable  self-indulgence,  a household 
not  ordered  for  God,  and  a daily  life  without 
the  true  mint-mark  on  it,  the  sermons,  in  which 
the  preacher  bids  his  hearers  be  holy,  will 
sound  like  the  turgid  phrases  of  a professional 
sanctity.  The  Christian  who  bids  his  neigh- 
bour carry  his  cross,  while  shirking  his  own, 
has  no  quarter  from  the  world. 


LIFE. 


35 


H51W0  questions  shall  end  this 

S . ^ in  Two  questions. 

II  chapter.  One  you  shall  put 

to  me,  Christian  reader : the  other  I will  put 
to  you.  If  God  so  freely  gives  this  eternal 
life  to  men,  with  a holy  purpose  for  them  that 
they  should  accept  it,  why  is  it  that  so  few 
enjoy  its  blessedness,  or  make  the  gift  actually 
their  own  ? This  is  a question,  another  side 
of  which  will  demand  consideration  further 
on,  but  I will  glance  at  it  now.  Our  Lord 
says,  “Ye  will  not  come  unto  me  that  ye 
might  have  life [johnr.  40],  and  again,  “How 
can  ye  believe  which  seek  honour  one  of  an- 
other, and  seek  not  the  honour  that  cometh 
from  God  only”  [John v. 44],  while  St.  Paul  ob- 
serves, “ If  o"ur  Gospel  be  hid,  it  is  hid  to 
them  that  are  lost : in  whom  the  God  of  this 
world  hath  blinded  the  minds  of  them  that 
believe  not,  lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  Gos- 
pel of  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God,  should 
shine  unto  them”  [2 cor. iv. 3, 4].  Men  have  to 
choose  between  two  lives,  and  two  worlds 
and  two  masters.  Some,  like  Balaam,  tem- 
porise, and  lose  both,  certainly  miss  eternal 
life.  Others  fail  in  seeing  that  the  very  act 
of  accepting,  or  if  you  like  to  call  it  so,  be- 


36  the  gospel  of  christ. 

lieving,  implies  a critical  effort  of  will,  a su- 
preme choice,  a victory,  which  in  every  real 
soul,  means  a pitched  battle,  an  exertion  of 
the  spiritual  being,  which  a lazy  or  undecided 
soul  puts  off.  As  the  Lord  Himself  said  to 
the  Jews  who  inquired  of  Him,  “ This  is  the 
work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  on  Him  whom 
He  hath  sent”  [John  vl  29].  They  who  are  lovers 
of  pleasure  more  than  of  God,  will  ever  lack 
seriousness  of  purpose,  moral  and  intellectual, 
to  make  them  close  with  Christ.  Others  fail 
through  not  turning  knowledge  into  practice, 
or  translating  emotion  into  conduct ; others 
are  fickle,  capricious,  and  shallow,  “ ever  learn- 
ing, and  never  able  to  come  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth”  [2 Tim. m. rj.  Then  liow  many  of 
us  refuse  the  task  of  bravely  encountering  in- 
tellectual difficulties,  and  disentangling  truth 
from  error  ! But  mental  laziness  has  its  pen- 
alties as  well  as  bodily  ; and  if  men  will  not 
take  trouble  about  the  truth,  doubts  will  work 
into  them  like  rankling  thorns,  and  through  a 
feeble  vacillation  in  making  up  their  mind, 
when  the  hour  of  their  departure  comes,  in- 
stead of  having  their  feet  on  a rock  they  are 
on  the  quicksands. 


LIFE. 


37 


Among  Christians  in  whom  this  life  beats 
with  thin  and  intermittent  pulses,  what  loss 
accrues  to  them,  both  of  joy  and  power, 
through  doubting  God’s  sufficiency,  or  slight- 
ing His  love.  Indeed,  have  any  of  us  any 
notion  of  what  this  eternal  life  might  mean 
for  us,  if  we  gave  it  full  play,  and  suffered  it 
dominion  over  our  hearts  ? The  joy  God  has 
for  those  who  suffer  for  Him,  and  the  peace 
for  those  who  trust  Him,  and  the  light  for 
those  who  consult  Him,  and  the  fellowship  for 
those  who  walk  with  Him,  and  the  holiness 
for  those  who  love  Him,  and  the  happiness 
for  those  who  shall  serve  Him,  who  shall  say? 
“How  excellent  is  thy  loving -kindness,  O 
God  ! therefore  the  children  of  men  put  their 
trust  under  the  shadow  of  thy  wings.  They 
shall  be  abundantly  satisfied  with  the  fatness 
of  thy  house  ; and  thou  shalt  make  them  drink 
of  the  river  of  thy  pleasures  ” [Psaim  xxx vi.  7,  8], 
Now  for  my  question,  which  I pray  you  not 
to  shirk,  but  honestly  to  answer  as  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God.  “ How  shall  we  escape  if  we 
neglect  so  great  salvation  ? ” Ask  this  on 
your  knees.  It  is  given  you,  do  you  recognize 
it?  It  is  given  you,  do  you  care  about  it? 


38  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

It  is  given  you,  do  you 'mean  to  receive  it  ? It 
is  given  you,  do  you  mean  to  have  of  it  as 
much  as  you  can?  Eternal  life  — God's  own 
life  — in  its  moral  beauty,  Divine  perfections, 
illimitable  future,  unspeakable  gladness ; love 
and  hope,  truth  and  righteousness,  power  that 
heals,  and  will  that  saves.  Eternal  life  — so 
far  as  creature  can  share  it,  and  grace  bestow 
it,  in  its  length,  and  breadth,  and  depth,  and 
height,  passing  knowledge,  as  the  love  that 
gives  it  does.  This  is  all  for  you,  yours  this 
day,  laid  at  your  feet  and  pressed  on  your 
heart  by  One  who,  to  prove  His  sincerity,  died 
to  procure  it  for  you,  lives  to  persuade  and 
enable  you  to  make  it  quite  your  own.  If 
only  you  will  take  it,  and  let  it  grow  within 
you,  according  to  its  own  hidden  law,  and 
proportion,  you  shall  presently  discover,  even 
before  you  die,  what  Heaven  means.  For 
you  will  know  what  God  is,  through  what  He 
gives;  and  Heaven  is  the  fruition  of  God. 
Neglect  it,  put  it  aside,  let  it  slip  by  for  a 
more  convenient  season  ; and  your  Eternity 
may  be  one  sad  remorse  for  what  was  once 
yours,  but  which,  with  a carelessness  it  will 
be  then  impossible  to  understand,  you  let  fall 
from  your  sluggish  hand. 


LIFE. 


39 

To  be  in  Christ  is  the  secret  of  our  life  ; to 
be  for  Christ  the  meaning  of  our  activity  ; to 
be  with  Christ  is  the  hope  of  our  glory ; to  be 
all  this  together  the  invincible  link  of  our 
blessed  concord.  In  a little  while  this  eternal 
life  will  be  manifested  ; and  sooner  than  we 
think  of,  the  curtain  will  lift,  and  we  shall  go 
in  to  see  the  King.  Then,  but  not  till  then, 
will  our  robes  of  whiteness  have  no  soil  on 
them  ; then,  assuredly,  we  shall  be  like  Him, 
and  what  now  is  a hidden  life,  will  shine  with 
the  brightness  of  the  sun. 


II. 


GRACE. 

“ASK  WHAT  I SHALL  GIVE  THEE.” 

u Si  tu  veux  croire  en  Dieu , vis  de  telle  maniere  que 
tu  ais  toujours  besoin  qu,e  Dieu  existed 

KING’S  word  to  a king.  Also,  a 
master’s  to  a servant,  and  a parent’s 
to  a child.  Of  course,  it  might 
have  been  the  other  way,  and  sometimes  is, 
reasonably  and  suitably.  Not  a few  hearts 
reading  these  words,  and  penetrated  to  the 
core  with  a sense  of  God’s  faithfulness  and 
goodness  to  them,  wonder  what  they  can  give 
Him  that  He  would  care  for;  love  Him  so 
gratefully  and  trustfully,  that  they  know,  did 
He  take  them  at  their  word,  and  ask  of  them 
their  most  cherished  treasure,  He  would  make 
the  act  of  surrendering  it  a great  reward.  But 
it  is  not  so  here.  It  is  God  who  asks  and  of- 
(40) 


GRACE. 


41 


fers  : man  who  thinks  and  replies.  Because 
He  loves  us,  He  offers  to  help  us.  In  propor- 
tion as  we  believe  His  love  and  value  it,  shall 
we  be  at  pains  to  open  our  hearts  to  His 
grace. 


“ Bubbles  we  buy  with  a whole  soul's  tasking, 

’Tis  Heaven  alone  that  is  given  away. 

’Tis  only  God  may  be  had  for  the  asking, 

No  price  is  set  on  the  lavish  summer  : 

June  may  be  had  by  the  poorest  comer.” 

—Lowell. 

For  what  He  was  to  Solomon,  He  is  to  us ; 
and  what  He  said  to  Solomon,  He  says  to  us. 
Do  we  care?  Some  care  so  little  for  God, 
and  have  Him  so  little  in  their  thoughts,  that 
He  is  felt  and  recognized  in  the  plan  of  their 
daily  life  less  than  the  winter’s  sun  at  the 
Pole.  Many  who  think  they  care,  still  do  not 
see  the  use  of  waiting  on  Him,  simply  because 
they  never  learn  it  through  doing  it.  Faith, 
like  most  things,  comes  by  believing;  just  as 
love  by  loving,  and  power  by  acting.  To  be 
possessed  by  a holy  consciousness  of  God  will 
not  come  to  us  merely  through  a fervent  wish 
to  be  near  Him.  Though  wishing  helps,  the 


42 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


felt-nearness  of  God  is  slowly  wrought  in  us 
by  the  effort  of  years. 

And  first,  let  us  observe  in  the  application 
of  this  sentence  to  our  own  circumstances, 
that  since  God  first  uttered  them,  His  su- 
preme gift  has  been  bestowed  on  the  world 
in  the  Person  of  His  Son,  pledge  and  measure 
of  the  rest.  It  should,  therefore,  be  pondered 
in  connection  with  that  eternal  life,  which  re- 
sides in  Him  for  mankind ; and  can  only  be 
interpreted  and  used  in  the  full  acceptance  of 
it.  What  He  most  and  first  desires  for  us  is, 
that  we  should  take  this  eternal  life  and  live 
in  the  power  and  beauty  of  it,  and  thereby  to 
learn  what  to  ask  for  as  most  suitable  for  it 
and  consistent  with  it ; thereby  also  be  able 
to  receive  out  of  His  fulness  into  capacities 
widening  by  use.  Yet,  so  patient  is  He  and 
bountiful,  that,  though  we  do  not  all  at  once 
receive  His  best  gifts,  He  will  not  on  that  ac- 
count refuse  us  His  lesser  ones.  He  wants  to 
be  known  as  a Giver  always  of  good  things ; 
and,  when  Christ  taught  His  disciples,  “ It  is 
more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive  ” [Acts  35], 
His  own  blessed  nature  taught  it  Him. 

There  are  some  things  we  ought  to  ask  of 


GRACE. 


43 


God ; some  we  may ; some  we  can  if  we 
please,  but  we  had  better  not.  About  some 
let  us  be  absolutely  silent.  If  they  are  to 
come,  they  will  come ; but  let  us  have  no 
share  in  their  coming. 

And  here,  on  the  very  threshold  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  in  the  logic  of  all  solid  thinking 
about  it,  comes  in  the  critical  question,  What 
is  the  value  of  Prayer?  To  those,  indeed, 
who  read  this  book,  the  preliminary  inquiry 
is  hardly  likely  to  be  needful.  Is  there  a God 
to  hear  it?  That  we  assume.  But  this  ad- 
mitted, there  are  still  vital  points  to  be  set- 
tled about  it,  if  we  would  neither  mock  Him 
through  unreality,  nor  rob  ourselves  through 
unbelief.  Therefore,  using  the  word  in  its 
limited  meaning  of  petition,  whether  for  our- 
selves or  for  others,  let  us  frankly  consider 
three  distinct  propositions  (not  new,  nor  only 
of  Christian  times)  which  together  go  a long 
way  towards  reducing  prayer  to  an  absurdity, 
nay,  supposing  them  to  be  true , even  a dishon- 
esty. Then,  meeting  them  with  an  answer 
which,  to  those  who  accept  Revelation  and 
worship  a living  God,  shall  give  light  and 
strength,  we  shall  have  a Gospel  indeed. 


44 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIS  T . 


God  cannot  answer  prayer ; for  this  would 
mean  the  capricious  disturbance  of  a compli- 
cated and  permanent  system,  which  goes  on 
from  age  to  age  without  change  or  check,  and 
on  the  unchangeableness  of  which  human  so- 
ciety depends. 

God  does  not  answer  prayer ; and  the  proof 
of  it  is  that  things  go  on  just  as  they  would 
if  there  was  no  prayer.  When  the  experiment 
is  proposed  of  testing  the  value  of  prayer  in  a 
hospital  for  the  sick,  the  challenge  is  declined, 
on  the  ground  that  faith  being  the  condition 
of  answers  to  prayer,  the  proposed  test  would 
virtually  destroy  it.  The  believer  may  be 
consistent,  but  Science  remains  unsatisfied. 

God  will  not  answer  prayer.  Why  should 
He?  His  love  will  bless  us  of  its  own  accord, 
and  does  not  need  our  pressing  it.  His  wis- 
dom can  choose  better  for  us  than  we  can  for 
ourselves,  and  a proper  humility  would  be 
content  to  trust  it.  Nevertheless,  God  per- 
mits, sanctions,  commands  prayer,  for  the 
peace,  and  courage,  and  submission  that  the 
very  act  of  praying  brings  with  it  to  the 
troubled  spirit.  We  tell  Him  our  burden, 
and  then  leave  it,  absolutely  assured  that  He 


GRACE. 


45 


will  do  the  best  for  us.  Our  ignorance  of 
what  is  best,  while  it  justifies  our  approach, 
condemns  our  importunity.  Only  the  actual 
event  can  indicate  the  predestined  order;  but 
it  is  much  to  have  the  spirit  braced  for  it 
when  it  is  ripe. 

To  these  three  statements  there  are  very 
simple  replies.  The  Almightiness  of  God. 
The  teaching  of  Holy  Scripture.  The  Exam- 
ple of  Christ.  The  Experience  of  Mankind. 
“ I believe  in  God  the  Father  Almighty.” 
He  ordains  laws,  indicates  them,  observes 
them  ; but  we  have  yet  to  learn  that  He  is 
either  imprisoned  in  them  or  limited  by  them. 
Does  any  one  ask,  * Are  we  to  understand, 
then,  that  God  will  work  a miracle  for  you  in 
answering  your  prayers?  We  thought  mira- 
cles were  over.”  The  answer  is:  Nothing  in 
Scripture  tells  us  that  miracles  are  over.  But 
I want  to  know  what  a miracle  is ; and  if  what 
is  usually  understood  by  the  word  is  really  in- 
volved in  God  hearing  and  answering  prayer. 
There  are  many  laws  in  the  universe,  and 
many  of  them  are  continually  in  a condition 
of  suspension,  and  even  suppression,  through 
the  operation  of  others,  which  for  the  time  in- 


46 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


terfere  with  them.  My  will  in  moving  my 
arm  to  throw  a stone  into  the  air  for  the  mo- 
ment interferes  with  the  law  of  gravitation. 
“ Donellan  Yet  no  one  calls  that  a miracle. 


Jellett,p.  57.  vjne  wjjj?  operating  within  the 
immense  and  unknown  economy  of  the  uni- 
verse, produce  the  same  result,  without  any 
violent  disturbance  of  the  established  order 
either  apparent  to  the  senses  or  injurious  to 
the  world  ? I can  faintly  conceive  an  Al- 
mighty God,  but  I cannot  conceive  a God 
who  is  not  Almighty.  If  He  is  Almighty,  and 
this  wonderful  universe,  with  its  hundreds  of 
millions  of  worlds,  is  the  expression  of  the 
Thought  of  His  will — for  one  of  us  tiny  creat- 
ures, a sort  of  dust-atom,  to  lift  up  our  little 
voice  to  Him  and  say,  Thou  canst  not  do  this 
or  that,  is  to  some  minds  a far  more  ludicrous 
dilemma  than  to  confess  God,  and  then  to 
make  Him  abdicate  His  omnipotence. 

“What  saith  the  Scripture ?”  From  first 
to  last,  it  not  only  sanctions,  but  commands 
prayer.  This  is  beyond  dispute.  But  what 
comes  from  it  ? Either  that  these  sanctions 


Lectures  on 
Prayer by 
Professor 


May  not  the  occasional  and  ar- 
bitrary interposition  of  the  Di- 


GRACE. 


47 


and  commands  are  the  superstitious  and  prim- 
itive expressions  of  an  unscientific  and  illiter- 
ate religion:  full  of  historic  interest,  but  in 
no  sense  binding  on  the  disciples  of  an  intel- 
lectual Christianity.  In  very  plain  language — 
the  Bible  deceives  us.  Or  it  is  literally,  de- 
liberately, continually  enjoined  on  us  to  pray. 
Prayer  is  at  once  our  duty  and  privilege  ; but 
only,  because  it  cannot  be  in  vain. 

And  our  Saviour  prayed.  Thereby  leaving 
us  an  example,  which  He  further  impressed 
and  fortified  by  very  distinct  and  emphatic 
words.  Oh,  I think  the  heart  grows  hot,  with 
a not  unshameful  heat,  when  it  ponders  His 
words  about  prayer,  and  is  invited  to  interpret 
them  in  the  light  of  the  dilemma — either  He 
did  not  know  what  He  was  saying;  or,  know- 
ing it,  He  said  it,  because  it  was  a useful  de- 
ceit ! His  prayer  before  the  choosing  of  the 
twelve — His  prayer  before  the  raising  of  Laz- 
arus— His  prayer  about  the  repentance  of 
Peter — His  prayer  about  the  passing  of  the 
bitter  cup : these  were  as  real,  and  human, 
and  direct  prayers,  as  any  lips  of  man  have 
breathed : and  to  say  that  they  were  but  an 
acted  drama  is  more  of  a folly  than  a bias- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


48 

phemy.  But  in  His  directions  to  His  apostles 
— did  not  He  bid  them  ask,  and  seek,  and 
knock?  Did  not  He  tell  them  that  whatso- 
ever they  should  ask  the  Father  in  His  name, 
He  would  give  it?  Did  not  He  bid  them,  as 
the  final  agony  of  their  people  came  on,  to 
pray  that  their  flight  might  not  be  in  the 
winter?  Did  not  He  promise  them  that 
where  two  of  them  should  agree  concerning 
anything  that  they  should  ask,  their  Father 
in  Heaven  would  do  it  for  them? 

Once  more,  what  is  the  experience  of  man- 
kind? That  God  does  hear  prayer,  and  al- 
ways answers  it.  Not,  indeed,  of  necessity, 
or  invariably,  in  our  way,  or  time.  Sometimes 
He  does,  and  we  have  our  own  answer.  Per- 
haps more  frequently  He  does  not.  But  if 
we  trust,  and  wait,  and  watch,  some  answer 
will  come,  and  the  best : far  better,  as  we  shall 
in  the  end  see,  than  that  we  had  asked  our- 
selves. The  end  is  that,  with  hardly  an  ex- 
ception, the  entire  human  race  always  has 
prayed ; may  we  not  say,  always  will  pray : 
while  over  this  groaning  earth  the  human  soul 
feels  a canopy  of  Divine  Love  to  be  graciously 
resting,  and  the  heart  of  a Father  to  be  open 
to  His  sorrowing  children’s  cry. 


GRACE . 


49 


On  the  features  of  prayer  that  make  it  ac- 
ceptable to  God,  I would  add  these  words. 
They  are,  more  or  less,  these  four: — Intense - 
ness . Oh,  to  be  in  earnest,  really  in  earnest. 
Our  prayers  are  apt  to  be  tepid,  dull,  insipid, 
feeble  languors,  that  neither  give  us  peace 
nor  God  honour.  Let  our  hearts  plead,  burn, 
wrestle,  and  conquer.  “ I will  not  let  thee  go 
unless  thou  bless  me  ” [Gen.  xxxii.  26].  This  vehe- 
mence honours  God’s  Continuousness . What 
we  want  to  cultivate  is  more  of  a spirit  of 
prayer,  in  which,  by  a kind  of  habit,  the  soul, 
without  set  phrases,  or  postures,  or  even 
words  at  all,  lives,  and  thinks,  and  acts  in  the 
immediate  presence  of  God,  humbly  waiting 
for  His  will.  In  the  name  of  Christ,  which 
does  not  so  much  mean  the  formal  mention 
of  His  name,  as  the  act  of  approaching  the 
Father  in  and  by  Him,  our  spiritual  represent- 
ative and  head  ; and  in  that  spirit  of  perfect 
filial  trust  in  which  in  the  days  of  His  flesh 
all  His  supplications  were  uttered.  Also  in 
that  habit  of  docile  obedie?it  faith , which  comes 
through  the  cumulative  force  of  daily  duty, 
whereby  through  sympathy  with  His  purpose 
we  come  to  ask  for  what  pleases  Him,  and 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


SO 

therefore  for  what  He  is  both  willing  and  able 
to  grant. 

“ More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer 
Than  this  world  dreams  of.  Wherefore  let  thy  voice 
Rise  like  a fountain  for  me  night  and  day. 

For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats, 

That  nourish  a blind  life  within  the  brain, 

If  knowing  God  they  lift  not  hands  of  peayer, 

Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend  ? 
For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  around  the  feet  of  God.” 

— Tennyson. 

PraiND  surely  the  first  thing  Temporal 
llfg&Bl  (for  the  gift  of  eternal  life  blessings. 
has  already  been  supposed)  that  we  may  suit- 
ably ask  of  God,  in  that  naturalness  and  sin- 
cerity, which  He  expects  to  see  in  us,  as  we 
in  each  other,  is  temporal  blessing,  measured 
and  chosen  by  Himself.  I know  it  is  a homely 
gift,  but  we  are  human ; it  is  earthly,  but  we 
are  still  in  this  world.  When  the  Saviour 
taught  His  disciples  to  say,  “ Give  us  this  day 
our  daily  bread  ” [Matt.vi.  2],  He  plainly  and  de- 
liberately justified  the  principles  of  such  a 
prayer,  while  He  limited  it ; and  by  an  illus- 
tration borrowed  from  the  natural  compas- 
sionateness of  a father,  He  yet  further  en- 


GRACE. 


51 


couraged  its  use.  When  we  ask  God  for  bread, 
and  in  this  complicated  system  of  things, 
bread  for  many  of  us  means  a great  deal,  we 
ask  Him  for  what  we  want,  because  He  has 
so  made  us  that  we  cannot  do  without  it ; and 
because  He  has  made  Himself  responsible  for 
it,  by  bringing  us  here,  without  any  act  or 
choice  of  ours.  He  will  not  give  us  a stone, 
or  He  would  be  worse  than  one  of  His  own 
creatures;  but  it  shall  be  bread:  though  not 
bread  rained  from  Heaven,  but  coming  to  us 
through  our  own  exertions,  for  which  the  op- 
portunities occur  through  Him.  Surely  it  is 
an  insincere  and  mawkish  spirituality  that  com 
ceives  prayer  to  be  marred  or  stained  by  its 
temporal  elements,  if  suitable  after  their  kind 
and  while  it  wrongs  God  by  its  ignorance  of 
His  Fatherly  justice,  it  robs  man  of  his  right- 
ful access  to  the  Throne  of  Grace  in  every  time 
of  need.  What,  however,  do  I mean  by  tem- 
poral blessings?  Not  for  the  world’s  prizes, 
nor  sudden  turns  in  the  wheel  of  fortune,  nor 
slippery  heights  of  power,  nor  constant  im- 
munity from  trouble,  nor  to  be  spared  the 
blessed  and  wholesome  necessity  of  exerting 
himself,  will  a good  or  wise  man  ever  be  care- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 


52 

ful  to  ask.  But  for  precious  health,  without 
which  duty  is  a fatigue,  life  a struggle,  oppor- 
tunity a disappointment ; and  for  that  reason- 
able and  suitable  occupation,  in  which  we  may 
exercise  our  gifts,  rear  our  children,  win  our 
bread,  and  deserve  our  friends : for  a filled 
home,  where  children  are  light  and  music,  and 
man  and  wife  make  life  complete  by  sym- 
pathy, and  the  tender  associations  of  multi- 
plying years  : not  least  that  useful  lives  may 
be  spared,  so  that  the  full  task  be  done  before 
the  shadows  fall,  and  the  evening  stillness 
comes.  Our  Heavenly  Father  knoweth,  that 
more  or  less  we  have  need  of  these  things, 
and  because  He  knows  it,  He  expects  and  in- 
vites us  to  ask  Him.  Yet,  while  asking,  we 
must  cheerfully  leave  the  issues  with  Him,  cer- 
tain that  He  will  do  the  very  best  for  us,  and 
that  sooner  or  later  we  shall  see  it  to  be  so. 

ERHAPS  the  next  thing  of  Simple  trust  in 
importance  is  the  habit  of  God • 
a simple,  manly,  uncomplaining  trustfulness, 
which  appreciates  God’s  promises,  rests  on 
His  character,  accepts  His  providence,  and 
absorbs  His  love.  Let  us  frankly  confess  that 


GRACE . 


53 


things  do  not  always  go,  even  with  the  best 
of  Christians,  as  either  they  or  their  friends 
could  wish.  Their  door  has  sometimes  to 
open  to  the  Angel  of  Death,  mildew  spoils 
their  harvest,  and  disease  smites  their  cattle. 
Their  wealth  makes  wings  and  flees  away.  On 
sick-beds  they  toss  uneasily,  or  with  hearts 
dumb  and  stunned  they  gaze  into  an  open 
grave,  seeing  but  little  for  the  tears.  Yet 
these  men  and  women  prayed  with  all  their 
heart  to  One  who  bade  them  pray,  heard  and 
loved  them  in  their  praying.  Though  their 
hearts  fainted  within  them,  through  hope  de- 
ferred, still  they  prayed  on,  for  not  to  have 
prayed  would  have  been  to  lose  God  ; and  to 
lose  God  is  to  perish.  One  other  thing  let 
me  insert  here.  Small  do  you  call  it  ? That 
is  why  I put  it  in.  For  it  is  small  things  that, 
just  because  of  their  smallness,  distress  and 
overset  us.  They  do  not  seem  to  require  our 
strength,  and  so  they  make  our  weakness  to 
be  seen.  I mean  the  weight  of  daily  care 
which  in  their  small  details  of  personal  ex- 
penditure, and  in  the  careful  routine  of  a 
household,  and  in  the  rearing  of  children,  and 
in  the  society  of  friends,  and  in  the  outside 


54  the  gospel  of  Christ . 

duty,  and  in  private  affairs,  singly  and  sepa- 
rately is  sufficiently  burdensome ; but  alto- 
gether, and  on  one  set  of  shoulders,  is  some- 
times felt  to  be  more  than  the  strength  can 
bear.  Those  anxious  lives,  tempted  to  be 
fretful,  and  hasty,  and  self-important,  and 
fussed  with  their  incessant  activities,  may,  if 
rightly  interpreted,  and  manfully  grasped,  set- 
tle down  into  round  and  sunny  centres  of 
regular,  and  peaceful,  and  fruitful  activities. 
“ Smooth  endless  days,”  as  Mrs.  Browning 
calls  them,  only  not  “ notched  here  and  there 
with  knives,”  shall  be  the  rule  and  not  the 
exception  ; no  one  shall  be  neglected,  and 
nothing  missed.  For  where  there  is  prayer, 
there  is  peace  ; and  God,  who  makes  every 
duty  possible,  knows,  helps,  and  cares.  Then, 
there  may  be  a very  weight  of  calamity.  Yet 
where  does  the  Gospel  tell  us  that  the  Church 
is  to  be  spared  trouble  ? Oh,  never  let  us 
judge  of  God’s  love  to  us,  or  purpose  about 
us,  by  the  outward  features  of  our  life  ; only 
by  His  personal  dealing  with  our  spirits.  Do 
not  fear  circumstances.  They  cannot  hurt  us, 
if  we  hold  fast  by  God  and  use  them  as  the 
voices  and  ministries  of  His  will.  Our  good- 


GRACE. 


55 


ness  and  our  greatness  do  not  consist  in  what 
we  have,  but  in  what  we  are.  If  God  be  for 
us,  it  matters  not  who  or  what  is  against  us, 
for  all  things  shall  work  together  for  our  good. 
Manifold  as  may  be  the  changes  in  front  of 
us,  sad  the  partings,  sharp  the  disappoint- 
ments, fiery  the  trials,  if  only  we  cling  to  God, 
life  shall  be  our  schooling  for  immortality,  and 
death  our  summons  home.  Trust  Him,  trust 
Him.  Trust  Him  about  every  one  and  every- 
thing, for  all  times  and  all  needs  ; earth  and 
heaven,  friends  and  children,  the  conquest  of 
sin,  the  growth  of  holiness,  the  cross  that 
chafes,  the  grace  that  stirs.  To  trust  God 
honours  and  glorifies  Him.  The  true  child  of 
a reconciled  Father  revealed,  seen,  and  adored 
in  Jesus  Christ,  moment  by  moment,  lives, 
learns,  conquers,  and  rejoices  through  faith. 

Then  may  we  not  ask  for  a Patience  with 
bright,  calm,  manly  patience  with  worries. 
the  small  vexations,  the  crass  blunders,  the 
petulant  resentments,  the  wilful  misrepresen- 
tations, the  insolent  criticisms,  and  even  the 
savage  attacks,  which  for  many  of  us,  perhaps 
for  most  of  us,  are  sometimes  a trial  even  of 
fire.  Was  it  not  Antoninus  Pius  who  said 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


56 

that  “ it  is  royal  to  do  good  and  be  abused  ” ? 
Some  men  can  claim  a good  deal  of  this  kind  of 
royalty.  It  is  easy  for  persons  outside  to  say, 
“ Do  not  care.”  The  friends  who  are  such 
philosophers  about  their  neighbours’  troubles 
are  sometimes  the  loudest  to  complain  of 
their  own.  Still,  when  these  things  come, 
either  blistering  us  (and  knat-bites  fester  on 
men  as  well  as  on  dogs),  possibly  bruising  us 
(and  a blow  on  the  face  must  make  it  swell, 
though  it  be  the  face  of  Aristides),  let  us  try 
for  a calm  self-control.  We  will  be  slow  in  our 
explanations  to  those  who  might  be  incapable 
of  understanding  them.  Let  a dignified  si- 
lence be  our  meek  protection,  to  go  on  in  our 
duty  our  present  reply,  the  first  chance  of  a 
kindness  eagerly  seized  our  happy  revenge. 
He  who  permits  these  things  knows  why  He 
permits  them.  We  who  suffer  them  may  be 
sure  that  there  is  a discipline  behind.  If  it 
is  a reproach  not  to  have  friends,  it  may  be 
even  a greater  not  to  have  enemies.  “ Woe 
unto  you,  when  all  men  shall  speak  well  of 
you,  for  so  did  their  fathers  to  the  false  proph- 
ets” [Luke  vi.  26].  Nay,  let  us  fear  not  to  say, 
that  if  they  come  to  us  for  doing  our  duty, 


GRACE. 


57 


even  though  with  some  imperfection,  they  are 
truly  honourable.  Also  let  us  not  be  too  much 
afraid  of  occasional  mistakes.  The  man  who 
in  the  way  of  his  duty  has  ceased  to  be  capa- 
ble of  them  has  probably  lost  the  courage 
to  be  useful.  There  is  an  ignoble  prudence, 
that  earns  the  reproach  of  God,  and  the  con- 
tempt of  men.  A good  conscience  as  to  mo- 
tive, the  glory  of  God  for  our  settled  purpose, 
a brave  habit  of  meeting  criticisms,  however 
sour  or  abrupt,  because  God  understands  us, 
if  men  do  not,  will  keep  us  quiet  and  strong. 
While  mistakes  sometimes  earn  for  men  al- 
most a more  severe  punishment  than  crimes, 
it  is  only  for  a moment,  and  then  comes  the 
reaction.  When  the  curtain  rises  that  now 
shuts  out  both  the  divine  secrets,  and  the 
completed  story  of  our  career,  our  mis- 
takes, as  we  call  them,  may  at  least  in  some 
degree  be  found  to  have  had  a larger  share  in 
our  usefulness,  perhaps  a larger  part  in  our 
education  for  immorality. 

Further  let  us  ask  (of  course 

. . r r i N . Individuality . 

only  it  we  feel  to  need  it)  for  a 

sense  of  individuality , with  the  responsibility 

and  sense  of  independence  that  will  be  its 


58  the  gospel  oe  Christ. 

companion  and  result.  “ Every  man  shall 
bear  his  own  burden”  cm.  vi. We  observe 
some  men  who  are  so  sensitive  to  criticism, 
so  helpless  and  crushed  in  the  face  of  public 
opinion,  so  gelatinous  in  the  texture  of  their 
moral  nature,  so  morbid  and  vain  in  their  de- 
preciation of  their  own  gifts,  that  they  do  not 
fill  their  place,  nor  use  their  talent,  nor  leave 
their  mark,  nor  make  their  confession.  How 
shall  this  best  be  remedied  ? Only  through 
their  distinctly  apprehending  the  grand  truths 
of  the  Divine  Sovereignty  and  Providence, 
and  by  stirring  a suitable  self-respect  in  one 
who  is  both  a son  and  heir  of  God.  It  is 
nothing  to  the  purpose  that  in  some  persons 
we  observe  an  offensive  preponderance  of  in- 
dividualism. The  world  is  usually  at  pains  to 
correct  this  self-esteem  with  quite  sufficient 
sharpness  ; and  is  also  the  gainer  in  the  end. 
Each  redeemed  and  baptised  soul  should  re- 
member that  God  has  sent  it  into  the  world  with 
gifts,  duties,  and  opportunities,  which  He  who 
has  ordained  thgm,  will  help  it  to  cultivate, 
and  expects  it  to  improve.  All  God’s  ways 
are  consistent  with  each  other,  and  complete 
each  other.  Every  one  has  been  sent  into 


GRACE . 


59 

the  world  with  a work  to  do,  and  with  the 
means  for  doing  it.  He  who  does  not  see  his 
work,  probably  has  not  taken  the  pains  to  dis- 
cover it.  He  who  morosely  complains  of  his 
scanty  opportunities  might  be  surprised  to 
hear  that  his  own  negligence  has  made  them 
scantier.  We  can’t  see  with  our  eyes  shut. 
There  is  a humility  among  some  of  us,  which, 
called  by  its  proper  name,  is  but  a subtle  and 
obstinate  pride,  that  will  not  fit  itself  for  great 
duties  by  accepting  and  discharging  smaller 
ones  first.  So  occasions  slip  away,  never 
coming  back  ; and  the  years  of  what  might 
have  been  a noble  life,  become  the  tedious 
vacuities  of  a listless  one,  and  the  poor  jelly- 
fish, despising  itself  to  begin  with,  becomes 
more  and  more  torn  by  contact  with  every- 
thing that  encounters  it.  There  is  no  moral 
courage  to  make  a fresh  start  and  redeem  what 
is  behind. 

To  all  of  us  the  Gospel  says  in  Christ’s 
name,  “ Follow  me,  and  I will  make  you  fish- 
ers of  men  ” [Matt.iv.  19].  Only  dare  to  believe  in 
Him,  and  that  will  help  you  to  believe  in 
yourself.  Walk  with  Him,  and  then  you  will 
forget  your  solitariness.  Listen  to  Him,  and 


6o 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


the  murmur  of  the  voices  outside  will  have 
no  more  power  to  disturb  you  than  the  mut- 
terings  of  the  winter  storm  across  the  bar  can 
startle  him  who,  from  the  safety  of  his  home, 
looks  out  on  the  foam  of  the  dancing  waters. 
Cling  to  Him,  and  the  sense  of  what  He  is  to 
you,  and  of  what  you  have  in  Him,  will  give 
you  the  dignity  of  a king. 

Be  thyself,  says  Christ  to  us,  and  stand  up 
on  thy  feet  that  I may  speak  to  thee,  and 
give  thee  thy  errand.  Be  thyself  what  I have 
made  thee,  and  meant  for  thee,  and  do  not 
complain  that  thou  art  not  some  other  man. 
No  one  else  can  do  thy  work,  or  fill  thy  place, 
or  declare  thy  message,  or  use  thy  opportuni- 
ties as  well  as  thou  canst,  or  indeed  at  all. 
For  no  man  can  do  another’s  work  for  him. 
If  it  is  not  done  by  each  one  for  himself,  it  is 
not  done  at  all.  God  is  thy  Father  ! Go  forth 
Bravely  and  strongly  to  witness  for  Him  as 
His  child  in  thine  own  way.  Christ  is  in  thy 
heart.  Is  not  that  enough,  both  for  thy  food 
and  protection,  light  and  gladness  ? 

If  our  solitariness  is  an  awful  truth,  it  is  a 
great  responsibility ; and,  for  the  burden  shall 
be  the  crown.  The  crown  our  King  Himself 
shall  choose. 


GRACE. 


61 


“ True  dignity  abides  in  him  alone 
Who  in  the  silent  hour  of  inward  thought 
Can  still  suspect  and  still  revere  himself, 

In  lowliness  of  heart.”  — Lowell. 

Shall  we  ask  for  a filled  life,  yy>/. 

...  A filled  life. 

opulent  in  its  duties,  free  in  its 
recreations,  wide  in  its  culture,  generous  in 
its  friendships  ? Do  if  thou  wilt.  Who 
shall  say,  “ Thou  hast  sinned  ” ? Yet,  God 
must  choose.  Most  wise  parents,  I suppose, 
would  prefer  for  a child  on  the  threshold  of 
responsible  life  a real  accomplishment  to  a 
cheque  even  of  four  figures.  Art  and  music, 
the  wealth  of  literature,  and  the  joy  of  song 
are  both  friends  and  companions,  which 
neither  waste  nor  corrupt,  neither  vex  nor 
weary.  All  things,  no  doubt,  have  their  pro- 
portions of  use  and  goodness ; and  each  ac- 
cording to  his  circumstances  must  decide  for 
himself  what  his  recreation  shall  be.  To  cheer 
and  interest  others  is  an  incidental  advantage 
of  personal  accomplishment.  If  knowledge 
is  the  secret  of  eloquence,  it  is  the  charm  of 
talk ; and  to  converse  well  is  a talent  that 
must  be  earned  through  being  cultivated. 
The  more  that  the  Christian  knows,  the  bet- 


62  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

ter  it  will  be  for  his  influence  and  usefulness, 
if  he  is  careful  to  use  it  wisely.  If  only  we 
remember  that  edification  in  the  widest  sense 
of  the  word  is  what  we  owe  each  other ; and 
that  we  were  sent  into  the  world  not  only  to 
enjoy  ourselves,  but  to  do  our  best  to  make 
those  under  our  influence  good  and  wise,  and 
strong  and  happy,  then  Raphael  and  Milton, 
Faraday  and  Handel,  shall  be  our  compan- 
ions, though  also  our  leaders ; and  by  aiming 
throughout  all  our  life  to  serve  God,  through 
helping  our  brethren,  conscience  will  be  satis- 
fied, and  who  shall  make  us  afraid  about  our 
innocent  joy? 

PlERE  1 may  suitably  inter-  About  our 

I pose  a Gospel  for  parents  ; children. 

and  no  words  I can  find  express  with  adequate- 
ness the  blessed  claim  we  have  on  the  prom- 
ises of  God  for  the  training  and  salvation  of 
our  children.  The  gospels  tell  us  that  Jesus 
took  the  children  into  His  arms  and  blessed 
them — blessed  them,  I suppose,  because  He 
loved  them — and  oh,  what  a comfort  for  us 
who  have  children  ourselves  ! What  a solemn 
trust,  what  an  ever-deepening  anxiety,  yet 


GRACE. 


63 

what  a tender  and  exquisite  joy!  A trust,  of 
which  we  shall  one  day  have  to  give  solemn 
account  to  God ; an  anxiety,  which  sometimes 
(though  we  are  ashamed  of  it  afterwards) 
tempts  us  to  wish  that  we  had  never  had  any  ; 
a joy,  which  all  through  the  day,  with  its  fever- 
ish troubles  and  duties,  exhilarates  the  heart 
with  the  hope  of  the  welcome  at  home.  God, 
who  is  a Father,  has  given  them  to  us,  and 
expects  us  to^ train  them  for  Him.  He  loves 
them  much  more  than  we  can  do,  has  deeper 
at  His  heart  their  salvation  and  happiness. 
Will  He  deny  His  grace,  or  refuse  His  pro- 
tection, or  soon  be  weary  of  waiting,  or  be 
very  slow  to  forgive?  To  some  of  us  the  need 
of  God  in  this  matter  is  unspeakable.  There 
may  be  only  one  parent  left  to  do  the  work 
of  two.  The  mother  left  alone,  sighs  as  she 
feels  her  inability  to  be  a father  to  the  bright 
eager  boys,  just  on  the  eve  of  their  plunge 
into  life.  The  father,  overweighted  it  may  be 
with  onerous  duties,  incapable  just  because 
of  his  manhood  of  being  a mother  to  his 
daughters,  sometimes  feels  paralyzed  by  the 
sense  of  his  helplessness  about  them ; silent 
about  his  own  loss,  he  is  tempted  to  mourn 
for  his  children’s. 


64 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


“ Women  know 

The  way  to  rear  up  children,  (to  be  just) 

They  know  a simple,  merry,  tender  knack 

Of 

....  Stringing  pretty  words  that  make  no  sense 
And  kissing  full  sense  into,  empty  words, 

Which  things  are  corals  to  cut  life  upon, 

Although  such  trifles  ; children  learn  by  such, 
Love’s  holy  earnest  in  a pretty  play 
And  yet  not  over-early  solemnized. 


Such  good  do  mothers.  Fathers  love  as  well 
— Mine  did,  I know — but  still  with  heavier  brains, 
And  wills  more  consciously  responsible, 

And  not  as  wisely,  since  less  foolishly  ; 

So  mothers  have  God’s  license  to  be  missed.” 

— E.  B.  Browning. 

“ Ask  what  shall  I give  thee/’  says  God  to 
the  bewildered  heart ; and  this  voice  is  a 
gospel  indeed.  Be  it  the  finding  of  a nurse, 
or  the  selection  of  a governess,  or  the  choos- 
ing of  a school,  or  the  settling  on  a profession, 
whatever  comes  close  to  us  has  living  interest 
for  Him.  Oh,  to  be  children,  ourselves  with 
God,  in  the  simplicity  of  a dutiful  faith  ! He 
knows,  understands,  observes,  cares,  pities, 
watches,  and,  in  the  end,  provides.  We  have 
our  duty,  He  His.  Our  duty  is  to  trust  Him, 
and  to  train  them.  His  duty  is  to  bless  them 


GRACE. 


65 

and  to  help  us.  If  we  are  not  wanting  on  our 
side,  He  never  will  be  on  His ; and  our  dear, 
happy  refuge  is  in  intercession.  To  tell  Him 
everything  about  their  needs,  and  our  own ; 
then  to  leave  them,  and  not  to  look  too  much 
forward.  These  children,  whom  some  of  us 
love  so  passionately,  and  enjoy  so  delightfully, 
and  watch  so  anxiously — we  long  to  make 
them  happy,  for  it  seems  their  right,  though 
with  a happiness  regulated  by  self-restraint, 
both  on  their  side  and  our  own.  We  long 
also  to  see  them  good,  and  are  humbled  to 
the  quick  of  the  heart  when  we  see  our  own 
faults  peeping  out  of  them  ; and  must  firmly 
correct  them  for  the  imperfections  they  have 
inherited.  Yet  they  are  His  as  well  as  ours  ; 
in  a sense,  more  His  than  ours;  twice  His,  by 
creation  and  grace.  Shall  not  we  constantly 
plead  with  Him  His  covenant  in  baptism  ? 
May  we  not  say  to  Him,  “ Hast  not  Thou 
adopted  them,  to  keep  them  Thine,  not  easily 
to  cast  them  off  ” ? Can  we  conceive  any 
prayers,  amid  the  great  tumult  of  human 
needs  and  wishes  and  tears  and  conflicts,  that 
ever  go  up  from  this  travailing  earth  to  the 
heart  of  God,  more  congenial  to  His  fatherly 
5 


66 


TILE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


nature,  more  likely  to  be  victorious  with  His 
compassionate  heart,  more  absolutely  in  sym- 
pathy with  His  redeeming  purpose,  more 
honourable  to  the  passion  of  His  Son  Christ, 
than  a parent’s  prayers  for  His  precious, 
though  sinful,  children,  that  they  may  be  kept 
safe  in  their  voyage  over  the  waves  of  this 
troublesome  world,  and  be  at  home  with 
Christ  for  ever ! 

For  three  things  more  let  us  ask  Him. 
They  are  the  best,  and  so  I have  kept  them 
to  the  last.  But  on  the  measure,  both  of  our 
appreciating  and  of  our  asking  them,  depends 
all  our  Christian  life.  They  are  cognate  to 
this  offer  of  Solomon,  and  are  the  essence  of 
the  gospel. 

ET  your  entire  spiritual 
, . ...  God  a Father. 

being  simply  impreg- 
nated with  the  idea  of  God's  fatherliness. 
This  is  the  one  unfailing  key  to  all  the  prob- 
lems of  life — its  denials  and  its  bountifulness, 
its  sunshine  and  its  storm,  its  voices  and  its 
silence.  Of  course,  He  is  Moral  Ruler  also — 
and  a very  strong  one.  We  have  found  out 
this  already,  most  of  us.  If  we  forget  it,  we 


GRACE . 


67 

shall  be  perhaps  sternly  reminded  that  love  is 
not  a weak  connivance  at  sin.  But  His  gov- 
ernment is  contained  in,  and  is  administered 
by,  His  Fatherliness.  Not  to  rule,  guide,  cor- 
rect, would  be  not  to  love.  Of  His  Fatherli- 
ness, the  one  result  and  object  is  to  conform 
us  to  the  image  of  His  Son.  Father  though 
He  be,  He  does  not  undertake  to  explain 
everything  to  us.  When  we  grieve  Him,  we 
must  not  wonder  that  His  face  is  turned 
away.  Sometimes  He  cannot  spare  us  an- 
guish, sometimes  He  must  keep  us  in  weary 
suspense.  Often,  indeed,  it  may  have  oc 
curred  to  some  of  us,  that  among  the  untold 
blessings  of  children,  not  quite  the  least  is 
that  we  are  helped  to  understand  God’s  deal- 
ings with  us  so  much  more  clearly,  through 
viewing  them  in  the  light  of  an  earthly  par- 
ent’s conduct  to  his  child.  Our  pity,  and  ten- 
derness, and  patience,  and  yet  inexhaustible 
love,  with  sometimes  real  displeasure  and  a 
heart  sore  and  torn,  may  help  us  to  see  how 
our  Heavenly  Father  feels  towards  ourselves. 
For  human  nature  is  on  the  lines  of  the  Di- 
vine. Were  it  not,  how  could  we  understand 
it — how  be  capable  of  partaking  of  it?  To 


68  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

trust  and  wait ; never  to  fear  asking  Him,  if 
only  we  ask  dutifully ; never  to  think  that  we 
can  disturb  Him  with  all  our  cares  and 
troubles,  if  only  we  leave  them  behind  when 
we  rise  from  our  knees ; to  tell  Him  first  and 
also  last  about  everything  that  concerns  usp 
to  feel  it  impossible  that  He  can  ever  be  un- 
just, or  unkind,  or  impatient,  or  weary.  Even 
when  He  chastens  us,  still  to  love  Him 
through  all  the  anguish ; even  when  He  does 
not  speak  to  us,  to  be  assured  that  presently 
the  answer  will  come,  and  the  right  one. 
This  is  what  we  like  our  children  to  be  and 
to  feel  with  us  ; let  this  be  our  mind  towards 
God.  Then  because  He  is  our  Father,  and 
we  call  Him  so,  and  He  delights  in  our  doing 
it,  let  us  continually,  and  fervently,  and  as  the 
rule  of  our  daily  life,  ask  for  His  Holy  Spirit. 
This  is  the  petition  about  which  we  may  al- 
ways be  sure  that  He  heareth  us ; this  is  the 
gift  which  gives  to  all  temporal  blessings 
their  safety  and  blessing,  to  all  spiritual  graces 
their  perfection  and  concord.  It  is  the  prom- 
ise of  the  Father,  not  only  for  His  Church  as 
a body,  but  for  the  individual  members  of  it ; 
nay,  it  is  the  one  end  for  which  the  Risen 


GRACE. 


69 

Lord  went  back  to  plead.  For  our  tasks  and 
our  pleasures,  for  our  sorrows  and  our  joys, 
for  home  and  for  society,  for  discipline  and 
for  culture ; for  training  our  children,  enjoy- 
ing our  friends,  ruling  our  households,  win- 
ning and  persuading  the  lost  — this  is  our 
need  and  His  promise.  Oh,  if  any  words  of 
mine  could  but  induce  those  who  read  this 
book  to  live  their  daily  lives  as  taught  and 
used  and  helped  and  guided  by  God  the  Holy 
Ghost,  it  would  be  a changed  world  both  for 
them  and  for  others.  Perhaps  we  have  all  of 
us  yet  to  fathom  the  meaning  of  the  sentence 
in  the  Creed,  “ I believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost.” 
I am  sure  that  we  have  no  notion  of  what 
God  could  make  us  to  be,  and  give  us  to  have, 
and  call  us  to  do,  and  help  us  to  learn,  and  en- 
able us  to  suffer,  and  permit  us  to  enjoy,  if  we 
would  but  try  to  understand  our  Lord’s  own 
promise.  “ If  ye  therefore  being  evil  know 
how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children, 
how  much  more  shall  your  Heavenly  Father 
give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  Him  ” 
[Luke  xi.  i3].  Whatever  hesitation  there  may  be 
about  our  other  prayers,  there  need  be  none 
with  this. 


70 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


0!NCE  more  let  us  ask  that 

, 1 Love  to  Christ . 

U we  may  love  Christ,  and 

serve  Him,  and  confess  Him,  and  resemble 
Him,  and  be  in  some  faint,  yet  real,  degree 
representative  of  Him  to  men.  To  have  as 
the  one  hallowing  thought  of  our  mind, 
“ Christ  calls  me  His  friend,  how  shall  I keep 
and  enjoy  and  deepen  that  friendship ; Christ 
is  my  Master,  how  shall  I best  serve  and 
please  Him  here  below  ?”  To  have  as  the 
one  supreme  consolation  in  our  disappoint- 
ment, “ Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love 
of  Christ  ?”  [Rom  viii.  35].  This  is  peace.  As  the 
one  final  hope  of  our  being,  when  activities 
diminish,  and  vigour  ebbs,  and  skies  darken, 
and  friends  die,  to  say,  “ Whom  have  I in 
heaven  but  Thee,  and  there  is  none  upon 
earth  whom  I desire  beside  Thee  ” cps.  ixxm.  257 
can  we  say  it?  It  is  the  highest  devotion. 
Of  course,  there  is  a sense  in  which  we  must 
deserve  this  conscious  possession  of  Christ, 
with  all  the  calmness  and  power  that  go  with 
it,  though  the  fact  of  our  deserving  it  is  itself 
a miracle  of  grace.  But  that  we  may  go  on 
into  the  dark  future  with  a sense  of  possessing 
this  friendship,  and  with  the  faculty  of  enjoy- 


GRACE. 


7 1 


ing  it,  and  with  the  power  of  returning  it,  is  a 
prayer  we  should  constantly  put  up  to  Him, 
who,  not  content  with  loving,  asks  to  be 
loved,  and  often  has  long  to  wait  for  an  an- 
swer. 

For  as  we  love  Him,  we  shall  grow  like 
Him.  “ Be  Christ  to  us”  is  sometimes  the 
bitter,  but  not  quite  unreasonable  demand  of 
the  world  on  the  Church,  and  we  can  be 
Christ  to  men  only  in  two  ways — by  charac- 
ter and  truth.  Character  implies  self-knowl- 
edge and  victory  over  discovered  faults,  and 
then  the  irresistible  and  incessant  power 
which  a consistent  life  ever  wins  over  man- 
kind. I know  that  self-knowledge  is  rare,  and 
feeble  natures  shrink  from  it,  and  as  we  grow 
older,  instead  of  its  augmenting,  too  often  it 
diminishes  through  a fatal  self-love,  which, 
like  a quilt  of  eider-down,  keeps  off  the  brac- 
ing air  of  criticism,  and  lulls  us  into  dreams  of 
our  own  goodness,  from  which  some  day  we 
may  be  only  too  rudely  aroused. 

But,  with  a dread  of  sin  we  must  join  a love 
of  truth — that  truth  which  Jesus  Himself 
claims  to  be — the  truth  in  love,  and  not  with 
hard  blows  and  rough  words.  None  are  so 


72 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


capable  of  usefulness  as  those  who  know  the 
truth ; none  so  ready  for  it  as  those  who  feel 
responsible  for  a great  inheritance ; none  so 
potent  with  it  as  those  who  can  answer  their 
brethren  with  salt  and  kindness ; none  so 
fruitful  out  of  it  as  those  who  can  love  and 
wait,  think  and  pray. 

Seasons  of  No  doubt  there  are  special 

special  grace.  moments  and  crises  of  the  soul, 

when  God  comes  near  and  whispers  His  very 
Presence  into  the  heart.  There  are  special  as 
well  as  ordinary  gifts  of  grace,  and  it  is  possi- 
ble to  miss  both.  They  may  be  to  anticipate 
some  great  trial  that  is  at  hand,  or  to  prepare 
us  for  a sudden  advancement,  or  to  lift  us  out 
of  the  fog  of  a blinding  perplexity,  or  to  as- 
sure us  of  His  presence  before  something  takes 
us  into  the  strife  of  tongues.  God  has  His 
times  for  visiting  the  souls  He  loves,  and  it  is 
our  wisdom  to  seize  them,  and  to  take  what 
they  offer.  Surely  it  is  significant,  that  it  was 
when  Solomon  had  been  offering  sacrifice  to 
God,  that  God  came  to  him  with  this  offer, 
“ Ask  what  I shall  give  thee.”  God  met  His 
child's  gift  by  giving  him  another.  The  more 
we  get, -the  more  we  become  able  to  get.  To 


GRACE . 


7 3 


be  filled  is  one  thing,  to  have  much  to  be 
filled  is  another.  A child’s  drinking-cup  and 
the  depths  of  the  Atlantic  may  both  brim 
over.  But  we  know  which  holds  most,  and 
even  God  cannot  force  on  us  more  than  we 
can  receive. 

There  is  no  exhausting  the  grace  of  God. 
What  most  grieves  Him  is  to  doubt  Him. 
He  is  able  to  give  us  all,  “ much  more  than 
these.”  What  we  really  need  to  learn  is,  how 
much  God  has  for  us  ; and  to  do  is  to  get  it  ; 
and  to  conquer  is  our  strange  dumbness  in 
the  presence  of  the  King.  There  are  many 
lessons  we  cannot  learn.  Life  is  not  long 
enough  here.  Also  about  many  things  it  does 
not  so  much  matter  whether  we  learn  them 
or  not.  But  the  Gospel  has  its  length,  and 
breadth,  and  depth,  and  height,  which  we  are 
to  consider,  if  we  cannot  fathom  them  ; and 
the  one  prayer  we  ought  all  of  us  in  the  time 
to  come  to  learn  to  say  more  humbly,  more 
sincerely,  more  gratefully,  more  trustfully 
than  ever,  is,  “ Lord,  show  us  the  Father” 


[John  xiv.  3], 


III. 


FORGIVENESS. 

“ CLEAN  EVERY  WHIT.” 


u The  Gospel  declares  a present  love  of  God  to  the 
sinner , which  would  not  only  have  him  back 
again , but  which  has  given  him  all  things  need- 
ful to  enable  him  to  return .” 

OU  remember  what  had  Incident  in 
happened.  Christ  and  7ohn  xiii- 
the  Apostles  had  come  into  Jerusalem 
to  keep  the  Paschal  Feast.  Through  a chance 
forgetfulness  — caused,  it  seems,  by  an  un- 
worthy dispute  about  precedence — the  service 
due  to  the  Lord  of  washing  His  feet,  before 
the  meal  commenced,  had  been  omitted. 
Partly,  it  may  be,  to  remind  them  of  this, 
though  gently  — also,  we  may  be  sure,  to 
teach  them  the  double  'lesson,  they  would 
never  afterwards  forget,  of  the  tender  love 
(74) 


FORGIVENESS. 


75 


He  felt  to  them,  and  which  He  desired  them 
to  show  to  each  other — He  took  a towel,  and 
girded  Himself.  Then,  going  down  on  His 
knees  before  them,  He  washed  their  feet  one 
by  one  — Peters,  who  warmly  remonstrated; 
John’s,  who  must  have  deeply  pondered; 
Judas’s,  who  dared  not  resist,  but  whose  cold 
hate,  as  we  see  from  his  question  after- 
wards, grew  into  a sort  of  bitter  insolence. 
What  did  it  all  mean  ? Two  things,  the  state- 
ment and  interpretation  of  which  are  here 
before  us.  The  preceptive  value  of  it,  as  con- 
tained in  the  words,  “ I have  given  you  an 
example  that  ye  should  do  as  I have  done  to 
you”  [johnxiu.  15],  there  will  be  time  enough  to 
consider  presently.  The  doctrinal  meaning  of 
it,  so  tersely  wrapped  up  in  the  three  words 
before  us,  so  vitally  and  historically  connected 
with  the  Resurrection  and  Ascension  of  the 
Lord,  I will  examine  now.  It  is  the  Gospel 
of  the  Forgiveness  of  Sins. 

There  are  two  distinct  aspects  The  aspects  of 
of  thought  current  in  our  time  modem  thought. 
in  reference  to  this  subject.  Modern  unbelief 
boldly  and  emphatically  maintains  that  for- 
giveness of  sins  is  at  once  impossible  with 


76  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

God,  and  destructive  for  man.  Impossible 
for  God  ! since,  if  He  is  consistent  with  Him- 
self in  all  His  operations  and  dealings  with  us, 
the  same  God  (as  Bishop  Butler  presses  in 
his  great  argument)  in  the  Kingdom  of  Grace 
that  He  is  in  the  World  of  Nature,  He  will 
act  in  the  one  as  He  acts  in  the  other,  and  be 
careful  not  to  contradict  Himself.  But  it  is 
certain  that  He  never  permits  or  forgives  the 
slightest  violation  of  physical  order.  Every 
breach  of  Nature’s  laws  has  its  inevitable  rec- 
ompense and  reward.  Equally  certain,  then, 
must  it  be  that  He  never  can,  never  ought  to 
condone  any  offence  against  the  moral.  As 
for  man,  it  is  positively  injurious  to  him,  be- 
cause essentially  subversive  of  all  authority 
without,  and  of  all  moral  sense  within,  him, 
to  suffer  him  to  suppose  that  if  he  sins,  he 
can  be  treated  in  any  other  way  than  that  of 
personally  suffering  all  the  consequences.  Nay, 
at  all  times,  this  notion  of  a free  and  gratuit- 
ous pardon  is  alleged  to  have  been  the  fruit- 
ful source  of  moral  disorder,  in  encouraging 
men  to  suppose  that  they  can  sin  with  im- 
punity ; and  with  equal  eagerness,  is  repudi- 
ated the  notion,  that  even  the  deepest  and 


FORGIVENESS. 


77 


truest  repentance  can  be  any  just  claim  with 
God  that  the  law  should  not  take  its  course. 

At  quite  the  other  extremity  of  religious 
speculation,  we  occasionally  find  a perilous 
looseness  of  statement  as  to  the  facility  of  par- 
don, and,  consequently,  by  no  remote  infer- 
ence, of  the  comparative  unimportance  of  sin. 
The  Divine  readiness  to  forgive  may,  it  is 
obvious,  be  pressed  in  such  serious  dispropor- 
tion to  other  equally  true  and  solemn  verities 
about  the  guilt  of  sin,  and  the  true  meaning 
of  sincere  repentance,  that  it  may  come  even 
to  represent  God  as  winking  at  it,  through 
the  freeness  and  gloriousness  of  the  remedy 
that  manifests  His  redeeming  love  to  sinners. 
The  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  is  almost  the 
most  precious  exposition,  in  all  the  Bible,  of 
the  heart  of  the  Father  towards  mankind. 
But  it  is  possible  so  to  depict  the  welcome  of 
the  penitent,  and  the  eager  readiness  of  his 
father  to  forgive  and  forget  his  guilt,  as  to 
tempt  the  feeling  that  no  slight  injustice  was 
done  to  the  elder  brother,  who  was  ever  with 
him  sharing  his  home  and  his  love. 

“ The  world  will  not  believe  a man  repents  : 

And  this  wise  world  of  ours  is  mainly  right. 


78 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


Full  seldom  doth  a man  repent,  or  use 
Both  grace  and  will  to  pick  the  vicious  quitch 
Of  blood  and  custom  wholly  out  of  him, 

And  make  all  clean,  and  plant  himself  afresh.” 

— Tennyson. 

First  let  us  examine  the  figure 
by  means  of  which  the  Lord  con- 
veys the  doctrine  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  ; 
and  then  proceed  to  consider  what  it  means, 
and  what  it  does  not. 

The  three  words  in  our  English  version  are 
represented  by  only  two  in  the  original,  both 
of  them  adjectives.  The  exact  rendering  is, 
“ clean,  all  of  him.”  The  illustration  is,  be- 
yond doubt,  borrowed  from  the  use  of  the 
bath.  One  who  has  just  bathed,  and  goes 
straight  home,  will  not,  on  returning  there, 
need  to  be  bathed  again,  for  his  body  just 
cleansed  has  not  yet  had  time  to  contract  fresh 
soils.  With  one  exception  : The  feet,  left 
partially  unprotected  by  the  open  sandals, 
from  dust  or  mire  on  the  walk  home,  may 
need  a fresh  cleansing.  But  this  is  all.  The 
rest  of  the  body  is  clean.  Thus,  by  a rapid 
and  easy  transition  from  the  material  and  vis- 
ible into  the  spiritual  and  invisible  world, 


FORGIVENESS. 


79 


Christ  used  the  figure  of  the  cleansing  of  the 
body  in  the  water  of  the  bath,  for  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  cleansing  of  the  soul  through  Di- 
vine Grace ; a cleansing  which,  whatever  its 
method,  and  its  conditions,  and  its  instru- 
ments, has  at  least  two  essential  features 
stamped  on  it  by  Christ — it  is  supernatural, 
and  the  very  work  of  God  Himself.  It  is  also 
complete. 

O you  ask  what  it  is  we  Figure 
mean,  when  we  speak  of  explained. 
spiritual  defilement  ? and  in  what  intelligible 
sense  can  such  defilement  be  said  to  be  washed 
from  the  spirit  of  man?  For  it  is  plain  that 
the  spiritual  essence  we  so  dimly  apprehend 
and  imperfectly  describe  as  the  word  “ soul,” 
cannot  be  reached  or  affected  by  material  pro- 
cesses in  the  application  of  sensible  things. 
That  spirit  can  be  soiled  at  all,  is  but  the  ap- 
plication to  one  sort  of  existence  of  a fact  or 
condition  belonging  to  another,  and  widely 
differing  from  it.  Consequently  it  is  essential 
that  we  should  penetrate  through  the  shell  of 
the  figure  to  the  spiritual  truth  beneath. 

Holy  Scripture  uses  three  distinct  figures 


8o 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


as  illustrations  of  that  Divine  process  on  the 
soul,  which  the  Apostles’  Creed  defines  as 
“ the  forgiveness  of  sins,”  and  which  our  Lord 
describes  as  being  “ clean  every  whit.”  They 
are  the  Water,  the  Blood,  and  the  Word. 
Water,  as  we  read  in  the  prophet  Ezekiel, 
“ I will  sprinkle  clean  water  upon  you,  and 
you  shall  be  clean.  From  all  your  filthiness, 
and  from  all  your  idols  I will  cleanse  you  ” 
[Ezekiel  xxxvi.  25].  Again,  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles, “ Arise,  and  be  baptized,  and  wash  away 
thy  sins”  [Acts xxii. i6].  BLOOD,  of  the  use  of 
which  one  instance  may  suffice.  “ These  are 
they  which  came  out  of  great  tribulation,  ajid 
have  washed  their  robes,  and  made  them 
white  in  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb  ” [Rer.  vn.  i4]. 
The  WORD:  in  our  Lord’s  own  use  of  it  in 
this  same  thirteenth  chapter,  “ Now  ye  are 
clean  through  the  Word,  which  I have  spoken 
unto  you  ” [johnxv.3].  One  instance  more,  which 
gives  a remarkable  combination  of  two  of 
these  figures  with  reference  to  the  Church, 
“That  He  might  sanctify  and  cleanse  it  with 
the  washing  of  water  by  the  Word  ” [Eph.v.26]. 

Now,  of  what  truths  are  these  figures  the 
symbols?  Water  is  the  symbol  of  the  super- 


FORGIVENESS. 


8l 


natural  operation  of  God  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
the  regeneration  and  sanctification  of  the  soul, 
whereby  are  conveyed  and  applied  the  forces 
of  Divine  Grace  to  the  soul  of  man.  “ Ac- 
cording to  His  mercy  He  hath  saved  us,  by 
the  washing  of  regeneration  and  the  renewing 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  ” [Titus  m.  53.  This  is  St.  Paul’s 
figure.  Blood  is  the  symbol  of  that  atoning 
sacrifice,  whereby  is  declared  unto  us,  at  once, 
man’s  sin,  with  its  consequent  ruin  and  help- 
lessness, and  that  unspeakable,  unfathomable 
mystery  of  grace,  wherein  God’s  holiness  and 
pity  came  together  into  one  redeeming  con- 
cord, and  righteousness  and  peace  kissed  each 
other  on  the  Cross.  “ In  Whom  we  have  re- 
demption through  His  blood,  even  the  for- 
giveness of  sins”  [Eph.i.7].  Again  St.  Paul. 
Word  symbolises  the  method  of  communicat- 
ing this  to  man’s  understanding.  For  hereby 
through  the  conveying  of  the  facts  and  truths, 
and  ideas,  and  promises  of  the  Gospel  to  the 
heart  and  conscience  through  the  reason,  in 
words  written  or  spoken,  his  spirit  is  seized, 
touched,  stirred,  broken,  and  healed.  “ Preach- 
ing peace  by  Jesus  Christ  ” [Acts x. 36].  this  is  St. 
Peter’s  account ; in  a word,  the  Blood  is  the 
6 


82 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


exhibition  and  operation  of  a Divine  redemp- 
tion ; the  Word  is  the  vehicle  pf  that  wondrous 
Gospel  and  the  intelligence  of  mankind  ; the 
Water  is  the  visible  sign  and  instrument  by 
which  that  message  is  applied  and  assured. 
The  end  of  it  is,  that  Christ  having  died  and 
risen  again,  and  the  Spirit  having  been  given 
as  the  Father's  promise  to  men,  accompany- 
ing and  vitalising  the  Gospel  of  a full  and  free, 
and  present  salvation  to  them  that  are  afar 
off,  and  also  to  them  that  are  nigh,  they  who 
perceive  their  own  necessity,  and  know  and 
believe  God's  great  love  to  them,  cast  them- 
selves at  the  feet  of  Christ  the  Redeemer,  and 
are  made  “ clean  every  whit." 

, 77  Now  let  us  consider  what  this 

It  means  jull 

and  present  means,  for  our  consolation  and 

pardon.  encouragement.  It  means  four 

infinitely  blessed  and  life-giving  truths  for  the 
Church  of  God.  First,  the  full,  free,  present, 
unreserved  forgiveness  of  sins,  to  every  peni- 
tent and  believing  soul  approaching  God  by 
Christ,  and,  presenting  in  an  act  of  faith,  His 
merits  and  sacrifice  as  the  one  ground  of  pro- 
pitiation and  mercy,  whereby  His  holy  grief 
and  displeasure  are  put  away,  and  the  plagues 


FORGIVENESS . 


83 

and  penalties  of  it  remitted,  and  the  veil  that 
shut  out  His  face  taken  away  and  constant 
access  opened  into  His  presence.-  Loved  be- 
fore, or  why  should  it  have  been  redeemed, 
now  the  soul  is  doubly  loved ; and  in  the 
grand  hyperbole  of  the  Psalmist,  “ As  far  as 
the  East  is  from  the  West,  so  far  shall  He  re- 
move our  transgressions  from  us  ” [Ps.chi.26]. 

And  with  pardon  goes  Right-  The  gift  of 
eousness.  You  cannot  really  righteousness . 
separate  one  from  the  other,  either  in  the  pur- 
pose of  God’s  mercy  or  in  the  method  of  it. 
So  much  so,  that  when  St.  Paul  writes  about 
it  to  the  Romans,  he  not  only  includes  the 
one  in  the  other,  but  practically  identifies 
them  as  two  halves  of  one  whole.  “ Even  as 
David  also  describeth  the  blessedness  of  the 
man  unto  whom  God  imputeth  righteousness 
without  works,  saying,  ‘ Blessed  are  they 
whose  iniquities  are  forgiven,  whose  sins  are 
covered.  Blessed  is  the  man  to  whom  the 
Lord  will  not  impute  sin’”  [Rom. iv. 6, 8],  which 
means,  only  diversely  expressed,  that  to  whom 
He  does  not  impute  sin,  forgiving  him,  He 
does  impute  righteousness,  justifying  him. 
One  act  does  both,  and  one  love  bestows 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 


84 

both.  To  be  forgiven  is  the  same  thing  as  to 
be  accounted  righteous  before  God.  For, 
clearly,  it  is  either  both  or  neither.  It  is 
either  the  prodigal  crouching  in  the  outside 
darkness,  or  the  accepted  child  standing  be- 
fore the  Father  in  Christ,  his  representative 
and  head. 

Sufficient  But  with  pardon  for  sin,  and 

grace.  the  divine  righteousness  going 

with  it,  is  the  pledge  of  continuous  grace,  as- 
sured protection,  and  final  victory.  God  is 
ever  consistent  in  His  purpose,  which  is  to 
overcome  sin  in  us  ; and  righteous  in  His  char- 
acter, which  never  claims  anything  that  we 
are  not  reasonably  able  to  perform.  Christ 
died  for  our  sins  that  we  might  die  unto  it. 
Therefore,  we  are  told  to  reckon  ourselves 
“ dead  indeed  unto  sin,  but  alive  unto  God 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ” [Rom.  vi.  113.  Be 
sure  that  whatever  we  need  for  holiness  and 
victory,  God  has  for  us — in  Christ : only  we 
are  to  ask  for  it.  “ The  river  of  God  is  full  of 
water  ” ; we  also  know  that  “ the  water  is  the 

gift  Of  God”  LJohniv  10] 

One  more,  and  briefly  (for  this 
is  a thought  which  deserves  and 


Usefulness . 


FORGIVENESS. 


85 

will  receive  frequent,  though  terse,  repetition), 
pardon,  acceptance,  victory,  imply  and  include 
one  thing  more : our  usefulness.  Observe 
this  in  the  case  of  St.  Peter.  Even  before  he 
denied  his  Lord,  it  was  laid  on  him  by  an- 
ticipation. “ When  thou  art  converted, 
strengthen  thy  brethren  ” [Lukexxii.32].  This  is 
just  what  happened.  After  the  Resurrection, 
as  they  walked  together  by  the  Sea  of  Galilee, 
Jesus  asked  him,  “ Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  lov- 
est  thou  me?  Feed  my  lambs;  feed  my 
sheep  ” [John xxi.  is,  i6].  He  did  feed  them.  Does 
any  reader  of  this  book  wish  to  know  if  he  is 
forgiven?  It  is  neither  a foolish  wish  nor  a 
presumptuous  one.  Let  him  ask  himself,  not 
only  if  God  is  using  him,  but  also  if  he  is  will- 
ing to  be  used.  The  Master  of  the  house  is 
not  so  rich  in  faithful  witnesses  that  He  can 
afford  to  dispense  with  one  of  them.  If  the 
joy  of  the  divine  forgiveness  has  really 
touched  the  quick  of  our  heart,  it  will  be 
quite  impossible  for  us  to  be  idle. 

OW  observe,  and  with  Errors  t0  be 

grave  attention,  what  avoided. 

forgiveness  does  not  mean.  It  does  not  mean, 
let  me  be  bold  and  ask,  could  it  be  good  for 


86 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


us  that  it  should,  that  the  moral  and  physical 
consequences  of  sin,  so  far  as  this  life  is  con- 
cerned, can  ever  be  remitted  or  repealed.  As 
much  in  the  moral  government  of  God  as  in 
the  majestic  order  of  nature,  there  is  an  inex- 
orable reign  of  law.  It  is  as  true  for  a saint 
as  for  a reprobate,  “ Whatsoever  a man  sow- 
eth,  that  shall  he  also  reap  ” [Gai.vi.7j.  While 
it  is  true  that  the  drunkard  may  be  utterly 
delivered  out  of  his  cups,  and  the  demon  of 
strong  drink  cast  out  of  him,  yet  the 
tissues,  both  of  body  and  mind,  until  he 
drops  into  his  grave,  must  be  marked  by 
the  excesses  of  the  past.  Fifty  years  of 
abstinence  in  front  can  only  prevent  future 
mischief ; they  cannot  drain  out  of  his  system 
one  drop  of  what  has  been  already  swallowed. 
That  the  past  is  irrevocable  is  a law  for  all 
men  in  everything  and  everywhere.  We 
must  consent  meekly  to  bow  to  this  absolute 
rule  of  righteousness.  We  must  recognize 
and  accept  in  it  the  merciful  severity  which, 
to  prevent  sin,  deliberately  makes  its  results 
evident  and  abiding,  which  will  never  try  to 
avert  evil  and  assist  goodness  by  making  evil 
as  sweet  as  goodness. 


FORGIVENESS. 


8 7 

Nor  again,  are  we  to  expect  that,  because 
sin  has  been  forgiven  and  put  away,  it  will 
never  tempt  us  again.  In  our  regeneration  it 
may  have  received  a deadly  wound,  but  being 
hard  to  kill  it  still  lives  on,  and  unless  we  take 
care,  may  soon  lift  up  its  head  and  be  too 
much  for  us  again.  Its  forms,  no  doubt,  will 
be  varied  and  modified  by  our  years;  for  self- 
love  has  a thousand  developments.  The  old 
man’s  temptations  are  not  the  boy’s.  A man 
in  middle  life  is  tempted  by  trials  of  his  own. 
But  it  is  the  same  mischief  under  a new  dress. 
Till  we  die,  “the  motions  of  sins  in  our  mem- 
bers ” will  ever  be  tempting  us  to  be  false  to 
Christ ; nay,  occasionally  it  almost  seems  that 
those  who  most  wish  to  be  like  Christ,  are  those 
who  are  most  with  Him  in  the  severity  of  His 
temptations;  and  that  the  disciples,  whom  He 
most  dearly  loves,  honourably  uses,  continu- 
ously sanctifies,  are  those  whom  the  tempter  is 
permitted  (as  with  Job  of  old)  to  harass  with 
the  most  grievous  and  poignant  temptations. 
Sometimes,  as  the  Psalmist  crying  up  to  God 
from  the  revealed  depths  of  a heart  which 
makes  them  loathe  themselves,  they  call 
aloud  to  God,  “Hath  God  forgotten  the  gra- 


88 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


cious;  hath  He  in  anger  shut  up  His  tender 
mercies  ?”  [Ps.  lxvii.  9]. 

It  does  not  again  follow  that  sin  forgiven  is 
sin  forgotten,  either  by  God,  or  by  man,  or  by 
ourselves.  You  may  think  it  inexact  to  quote 
Joseph's  brethren  as  an  instance  of  this,  when 
in  the  presence  of  the  august  ruler  they  said, 
one  to  another,  “We  are  verily  guilty  con- 
cerning our  brothers  ” [Gen.  xm.  21].  Certainly, 
that  pathetic  history  gives  us  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  they  ever  truly  repented  of  it 
till  the  sin  was  brought  home  to  their  door. 
But  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  David’s  sin 
about  Uriah  was  never  forgotten,  either  by  his 
enemies  or  by  himself,  until  the  rest  of  the 
grave  had  soothed  him  into  forgetfulness. 
St.  Peter  never  forgot  that  he  had  denied  his 
Lord.  Had  he  forgotten  it,  there  would  have 
been  many  ready  to  give  the  seton  of  memory 
a pull.  This,  too,  bitter  and  humbling  as  it 
may  be,  is  also  wholesome  and  sobering,  op- 
erating by  the  force  of  law  through  the  action 
of  memory,  and  the  power  of  mental  associa- 
tion, sometimes,  too,  the  cruelty  of  unrelent- 
ing hearts.  Yet  it  is  no  proof  whatever  that 
we  are  neither  forgiven  nor  loved.  What  it 


FORGIVENESS. 


89 

does  show  is,  that  there  must  be  some  fresh 
lesson  for  us  to  learn  of  humility  or  watchful- 
ness ; more  tenderness  to  acquire  in  dealing 
with  the  infirmities  of  tempted  brethren ; 
more  sympathy  to  manifest  in  helping  them 
to  bear  their  burdens  up  the  steep  Hill,  Diffi- 
culty, to  the  house  where  Evangelist  dis- 
courses on  the  gospel  of  grace.  Once  more, 
and  oh  ! that  this  awful  truth  could  be  writ- 
ten as  with  the  point  of  a diamond  in  our 
hearts,  it  never  can  be  quite  the  same  thing — 
no,  not  even  in  eternity — to  have  sinned,  as 
not  to  have  sinned ; however  profound  the  re- 
pentance, complete  the  conversion,  devoted 
the  service,  edifying  the  life.  A blameless 
past  must  always  be  better  than  a stained  one. 
It  is  blessed  to  repent  and  to  be  forgiven ; but 
blesseder,  oh  ! far  blesseder  is  it  never  to  have 
left  our  Father's  house  at  all,  and  to  have 
kept  ourselves  in  a pure  youth  and  an  upright 
manhood.  Every  one  and  everything  is  worse 
for  sin . For  sin  goes  on  scattering  its  con- 
tagions and  harvesting  its  results  long  after  it 
has  been  confessed,  forsaken,  and  forgiven — 
nay,  long  after  he  who  has  sinned  has  joined 
the  white-robed  throng.  To  some  this 


90 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIS  T. 


thought  of  the  terrible,  and,  in  a sense,  un- 
ending vitality  of  sin  would  be  almost  intol- 
erable, if  they  could  not  somehow  leave  it 
with  Him  who,  in  forgiving,  knows  what  He 
has  forgiven,  has  other  ways,  we  trust,  of  pre- 
venting, and  healing,  and  finally  overcoming 
evil,  than  He  has  been  pleased  to  reveal. 

What  I would  press  now  is,  that  not  for 
one  moment  is  the  thought  to  be  tolerated, 
that  because  Christ  has  died  for  us,  and  God 
is  reconciling  us  to  Himself  in  Him,  therefore 
a little  sin,  more  or  less,  is  of  small  conse- 
quence. If  only  for  five  minutes  we  could 
contemplate  the  anguish  of  a lost  soul  over 
unforgiven  sin,  could  feel  the  gloom  of  the 
outer  darkness  settling  down  on  an  unhappy 
spirit  banished  from  the  King's  marriage-feast, 
we  should  better  understand  how  to  loathe 
and  resist  it  now. 

In  conclusion  of  this  part  of 
the  subject,  let  me  remark  on 
St.  Peter's  words  to  the  Church  at  Jerusalem 
about  the  power  of  faith  to  purify  the  heart 
of  man.  This  faith  (about  which  a subject 
like  the  Gospel  requires  continual  exposition) 
applies,  as  necessity  calls  for  it,  the  precious 


Faith  purifies . 


FORGIVENESS, 


91 

blood  of  Christ  with  all  it  means,  and  bestows, 
to  the  continual  frailties  of  the  believer's  con- 
science, resting  on  the  Word  of  God,  claiming 
His  grace,  going  in  and  out  of  His  presence, 
uttering  a true  Amen  to  the  claims  of  His 
righteousness. 

Yet  faith  does  not  mean  presumption. 
Rather  it  implies  soberness  and  vigilance,  a 
burning  desire  to  avoid  sin,  a quick  readiness 
to  acknowledge  it,  when  we  have  tumbled 
into  its  snare;  a solemn  purpose  to  renounce 
it  for  the  future. 

Also,  to  borrow  the  figure  before  us,  really 
in  a certain  sense  it  is  unavoidable,  that  in  his 
daily  activities,  and  inevitable  mingling  with 
the  world,  the  hands  and  feet  of  the  cleansed 
and  accepted  Christian  must  contract  some 
defilements,  which  need  neither  spoil  his  con- 
sistency nor  blunt  his  conscience.  Yet  the 
more  carefully  we  pick  our  steps  through  the 
miry  places  of  the  world,  the  better  it  will  be 
for  us.  Soils  once  contracted  easily  work  into 
the  character  unless  confessed  and  disowned. 
The  Church  needs  all  the  goodness  she  can 
get,  to  help  her  faithfully  to  witness  to  the 
world. 


92 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


SAID  there  was  a precep- 
tive value  in  this  incident. 


Preceptive 
value  of  the 

When  Christ  rose  up  from  wash-  incident- 
ing  the  disciples'  feet,  He  asked,  “ Know  ye 
what  I have  done  unto  you  ? If  I,  your  Lord 
and  Master,  have  washed  your  feet,  ye  also 
ought  to  wash  one  another's  feet”  [John %m.  143. 
Let  us  clearly  see  that  the  Gospel  does  not 
tell  us  merely  what  we  are  to  have,  but  what 
we  are  to  be.  It  is  not  simply  a way  of  escape 
from  pains  and  penalties,  it  explains  our  spirit- 
ual inheritance  in  what  God  desires  us  to  be, 
through  our  likeness  to  Him. 

What  does  it  mean  to  wash  one  another's 
feet,  chiefly,  if  not  exclusively,  in  that  region 
of  thought  and  conduct,  which  is  germane  to 
the  subject  before  us,  “ the  forgiveness  of 
sins  ” ? This  is  as  important  in  its  bearing 
on  the  corporate  life  of  the  Church,  as  on  the 
personal  edification  of  its  individual  members. 
It  has  been  well  observed  that  “ the  effect  of 


Fragments  of  Christianity  is  to  introduce  new 
truth.  relationships  among  men.”  Chris- 

tians, as  Christians,  have  a claim  on  our  regard ; 
and  this  new  relationship  has  corresponding 
duties.  In  the  almost  total  absence  of  any- 


FORGIVENESS. 


93 


thing  like  Church  discipline,  normally  admin- 
istered and  dutifully  accepted,  the  mutual 
help  and  comfort  that  Christians  can  give 
each  other  in  their  private  religious  life,  grows 
into  exceptional  importance.  In  nothing,  as 
I have  before  observed  about  this,  is  the  gulf 
so  apparent  between  the  primitive  (p.  25) 
times  and  our  own,  as  in  the  almost  Arctic 
unsociableness  of  our  modern  religious  life. 
It  is  correlated  by  the  comparative  indiffer- 
ence we  feel  to  the  spiritual  edification  of 
our  brethren,  through  our  being  devoid  of  all 
sense  of  responsibility  about  it.  What  is  the 
love  which  I owe  to  my  neighbour,  simply  as 
a Christian  to  a Christian,  distinct  from, 
though  often  it  will  be  in  addition  to,  the 
love  of  affinity  and  friendship  : it  may  be  in 
spite  of  personal  unattractiveness,  and  a total 
lack  of  intellectual  or  social  sympathy  — the 
love,  in  fact,  which  I owe  to  him,  because  he 
is  dear  to  Christ,  and  Christ  is  real  to  me. 
Here,  assuredly,  was  the  original,  and  with 
many  now,  the  hardly  appreciated  evidence 
of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  to  which  our 
Lord  appealed,  “ Hereby  shall  all  men  know 
that  ye  are  my  disciples,  'if  ye  have  love  one 


94 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


to  another  ” cjohnxm.35];  also  in  his  general  Epis- 
tle St.  John  writes,  “ We  know  that  we  have 
passed  from  death  unto  life,  because  we  love 
the  brethren”  [1  John m. i4].  I suppose  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  washing  His  disciples'  feet  could 
hardly  have  been  a greater  shock  to  St.  Peter 
than  Philemon  mixing  in  kindly  intercourse 
with  Onesimus  must  have  been  to  the  Pagans 
at  Colosse,  or  a Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews  to 
his  own  compatriots,  eating,  drinking,  and 
conversing  with  the  Gentile  scum  of  Rome. 
Gentle  reproof  of  sin  is  one  way.  Not  to 
permit  sin  in  our  brother,  either  by  conniving 
at  it,  or  excusing  it,  or  repeatedly  suffering  it 
to  pass  unnoticed.  Who  does  not  instantly 
recognize  the  immense  need  of  tact,  and  deli- 
cacy, and  kindness  here  ? How  those  who 
are  ready  to  observe  their  brethren's  faults, 
should  be  quick  to  detect,  and  generous  to 
confess,  their  own.  How  those  wdio  find  it 
easy  to  set  their  brethren  right  are  usually 
those  whose  spiritual  self-love  tempts  them  to 
cultivate  their  neighbour's  vineyard  rather 
than  their  own.  How  the  tenderest  and  hum- 
blest souls,  recollecting  their  Lord's  warning, 
“ Judge  not  that  ye  be  not  judged”  [Matt vn. u, 


FORGIVENESS, 


95 

are  prone  to  feel  it  a serious  uncharitableness 
even  to  observe  sin  in  a brother,  a grave  pre- 
sumption to  notice  it.  Yet,  surely  the  greatest 
service  we  can  do  our  brother  is  to  help  him 
into  goodness;  and  it  is  better  to  risk  the 
resentment  of  a friend,  who  will  thank  us  for  it 
afterwards,  than  to  be  untrue  to  Christ.  There 
are  opportunities  of  speaking,  and  delicacies 
of  expression,  and  charities  of  silence,  and 
preparations  of  prayer,  which  will  occur  to  us 
all,  and  which  reflection  and  practice  will  make 
perfect.  Faithfulness  need  not  be  sharpness. 
Reproof,  studied  and  prayed  about,  may  be 
as  gentle  as  the  falling  dew.  This  is  certain, 
that  again  and  again  we  find  ourselves  reward- 
ed for  having,  in  this  way,  inflicted  worse  pain 
on  ourselves  than  on  our  brother,  by  his  grati- 
tude afterwards.  To  prevent  sin  is  ever  bet- 
ter than  to  deliver  out  of  it,  a result  which 
a word  of  caution  will  often  effect,  and  an  act 
of  sacrifice  perhaps  clinch  for  ever.  It  is  a 
blessed  feature  of  this  present  time,  which, 
indeed,  has  not  so  many  elements  of  hopeful- 
ness about  it,  that  we  can  afford  to  forget  one 
of  them,  that  a strenuous  and  successful  effort 
is  being  made  in  an  organized  and  systematic 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


96 

way  to  remedy  and  even  to  prevent  intemper- 
ance. The  force  of  example  is  far  more 
telling  than  we  have  any  notion  of,  in  the 
mere  fact  of  total  abstinence  from  intoxicat- 
ing beverages,  without  apparent  loss  either  of 
health,  briskness,  or  comfort.  But  when  a 
man,  who  has  power  over  his  own  will,  and 
is  perfectly  justified,  if  he  thinks  proper,  in  a 
moderate  use  of  fermented  drinks,  sees  that 
by  his  personal  surrender  of  liberty,  in  what 
to  him  is  innocent,  but  for  his  friend  perilous, 
he  can  help  his  friend  to  abstain  from  it,  and 
by  both  the  sympathy  and  companionship  in 
it,  keep  him  true  to  his  purpose — there  is  as 
good  an  instance  as  can  be  found  whether  of 
St.  Paul  refusing  to  eat  meat  lest  he  should 
make  his  brother  stumble,  or  of.  washing  a 
disciple's  feet,  as  the  Lord  did  here. 

Happy  is  the  family  where  husband,  wife, 
brother,  sister,  master,  and  servant  dwell  to- 
gether in  the  godly  unity  of  a common  striv- 
ing after  holiness.  Blessed  is  the  Church 
which  has  learned  how  to  exercise,  without 
fear  of  misrepresentation  from  without,  or  of 
schism  from  within,  this  function  of  discipline 
for  Christ. 


FORGIVENESS. 


97 

Here,  to  complete  this  part  of  the  subject, 
I would  indicate  another  important  detail  in 
this  ministry  of  mutual  edification  which 
ought  not  to  be  passed  over  in  silence,  merely 
because  some  abuse  it,  and  others  misunder- 
stand it,  and  others  who  have  never  tried  it 
condemn  it  unheard.  “ Confess  your  faults 
one  to  another,  and  pray  one  for  another,  that 
ye  may  be  healed  ” [James  v.iej.  It  is,  of  course, 
the  case  that  the  precept,  as  we  read  it  in 
these  homely  words  of  the  Apostle,  simply 
inculcates  a private  Christian  duty  between 
individual  believers  ; and  says  nothing  about  a 
formal  absolution  by  a minister  of  Christ. 
That,  here,  is  neither  enjoined,  nor  forbidden  ; 
simply  it  was  not  before  the  writer’s  mind. 
He  thinks  of  a friend’s  service,  not  a priestly 
office.  Now,  do  we  Christians  avail  ourselves 
of  this  help  as-  we  ought — the  young  espec- 
ially? for  it  is  both  easier  and  more  helpful 
for  them.  It  is  certain  that  we  do  not,  and 
we  may  be  great  losers  thereby.  A friend  who 
will  not  despise  us  for  our  weakness,  nor  dis- 
own us  for  our  sinfulness,  nor  tire  of  us  for 
being  troublesome,  nor  scoff  at  us  for  our  sen- 
sibility, but  who  will  patiently  hear  our  tale, 
7 


98  the  gospel  of  christ. 

readily  understand  our  regret,  easily  recognise 
our  stumbling-blocks ; and  be  honest  enough 
to  tell  us  the  truth,  cost  us  what  it  may — do 
not  you  see  what  a real  help  he  might  be  to 
us;  just  because  he  loves  us,  understanding 
us  so  thoroughly,  and  because  he  loves  Christ, 
anxious  to  deliver  us  out  of  what  puts  Him 
to  shame.  Then  when  our  tale  is  told,  and 
the  counsel  given,  if  all  is  ended  with  tender 
and  fervent  prayer,  the  conscience  lightened 
of  its  burden  hates  sin  more  keenly  than  ever, 
the  heart  with  the  sunshine  of  God’s  face  on 
it  is  bright  with  the  Saviour’s  presence,  and 
made  glad  of  the  sympathy  of  a friend,  whose 
holy  love  represents  Him  to  us. 

No  one,  indeed,  will  be  so  foolish  as  to  sup- 
pose that  talking  about  our  faults  is  the  only 
or  even  the  best  way  of  getting  rid  of  them, 
or  helping  our  brother  to  get  rid  of  his.  It 
is  quite  conceivable  that  some  of  us  need 
checking  rather  than  encouraging  in  this  mat- 
ter. Vanity  creeps  in  everywhere;  and  can 
feed  itself  even  on  the  story  of  sin.  But  do 
we,  as  we  might,  avail  ourselves  of  each 
other’s  help  in  our  spiritual  difficulties?  Here 
as  elsewhere  does  not  God  often  aid  us  through 
the  ministry  of  man  ? 


FORGIVENESS. 


99 


Of  course  there  are  other  ways  of  minister- 
ing to  each  other,  and  of  washing  the  breth- 
ren's feet. 

Encouraging  to  good  works,  storing  up 
grace  in  the  heart  by  good  conversation,  in- 
viting to  intercessory  prayer,  are  ways  obvious  , 
and  familiar  to  us  all.  What  I chiefly  want 
to  urge  is,  that  Christians  fail  in  methodically 
and  continuously  and  devoutly  helping  each 
other  in  the  arduous  effort  after  personal  holi- 
ness. The  Church  is  a society ; and  our 
Christian  life  ought  to  have  more  of  the  social 
element  in  it.  When  we  walk  alone,  frost 
more  easily  gets  both  into  the  limbs  and  heart. 
Now  this  would  not  be,  if  we  had  more  love. 
The  first  thing,  and  the  last  we  have  to  do,  is  to 
love  each  other.  Until  we  love  each  other  we 
shall  be  at  no  pains  to  bring  each  other  nearer 
to  God.  When  we  do,  we  shall  enter  into  each 
other’s  difficulties,  and  bear  with  shortcom- 
ings, while  we  see  the  error  and  hate  the  sin. 
To  love — here  is  at  once  the  difficulty  of  our 
life,  and  yet  the  nobleness  of  it.  Yet  if  God 
so  loved  us  [Uohniv.ii],  we  ought  also  to  love 
one  another;  and  if  His  love  was  made  per- 
fect in  the  revelation  of  His  Godhead,  our 


IOO 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


love  to  each  other  must  be  the  continual  work 
of  His  grace. 

HE  words  have  also  a _ v , 

Doctrinal 

doctrinal  significance,  and  value  of  the 
in  more  respects  than  one.  lncident- 
Thoughtful  divines  have  constantly  recog- 
nized in  this  incident,  and  the  teaching  that 
goes  with  it,  a close  connection  not  only  with 
Holy  Baptism,  but  with  the  entire  economy 
of  grace  in  the  continual  cleansing  of  the  im- 
perfect but  faithful  soul.  If  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  spiritual  cleansing  in  baptism,  Ana- 
nias's direction  to  Saul,  already  quoted,  has  no 
meaning,  and  it  becomes  an  empty  and  dis- 
appointing formalism.  Surely,  to  the  faithful 
recipient  of  that  Divine  ordinance  a free  for- 
giveness is  assured.  “ One  baptism  for  the 
remission  of  sins  ” is  the  expression  of  the 
Catholic  faith ; and  while  the  baptism  cannot 
be  repeated,  that  primal  forgiveness  is  pledge 
and  first-fruits  of  pardon  renewed,  bestowed 
as  frailty  requires  and  repentance  prepares. 
In  Holy  Communion,  while  we  ask,  “ So  to 
eat  the  flesh  of  Jesus  Christ  and  to  drink  His 
blood,  that  our  sinful  bodies  may  be  made 


FORGIVENESS. 


IOI 


clean  by  His  body,  and  our  souls  washed 
through  His  most  precious  blood,”  we  can 
plead  it  as  our  ground  of  access,  make  it  a 
sacrifice  of  thanksgiving,  only  when  it  is  first 
a season  of  penitence.  Claiming  our  privi- 
lege as  children,  we  will  always  remember 
that  the  possibilities  of  the  prodigal  are  deep 
within  our  souls  ; called  to  be  saints,  let  us  ask 
for  the  power  of  the  resurrection  continually 
to  deliver  us  from  the  bondage  of  indwelling 
sin.  Perhaps  we  none  of  us  know  what  we 
miss  through  lack  of  explicit  and  detailed  and 
honest  and  sorrowful  confession  of  sin.  Yet 
to  the  English  Churchman  the  service  of  Holy 
Communion,  with  its  ample  opportunities  for 
private  and  close  reflection,  would  bring  much 
more  solid  and  vivid  comfort,  if  there  were 
less  desultoriness  and  more  effort  for  detailed 
prayer. 

When  the  Lord  was  approaching  St.  Peter 
to  wash  his  feet,  and  the  apostle  resisted 
Him,  it  became  necessary  to  vindicate  with  a 
kind  of  sternness  the  province  and  duty  of 
faith.  “ What  I do  thou  knowest  not  now, 
but  thou  shalt  know  hereafter”  [John xm. 7].  The 
Lord's  meaning  is  plain.  His  word,  and  His 


102 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


character  behind  it,  were  to  be  the  ground  of 
the  apostle’s  obedience. 

The  incident  may  explain 
Assurance . something  of  the  true  doctrine 

of  assurance*  in  its  blessed  reasonableness,  its 
objective  basis,  its  personal  verification,  and 
its  occasional  disturbances.  Nothing  is  in  it- 
self more  reasonable  than  that  a Christian 
man  should  desire  a sense  of  acceptance  with 
God.  It  is  at  once  his  encouragement  to 
obedience,  his  stimulus  to  goodness,  and  the 
secret  of  his  testimony  to  the  world.  “ Grant, 
we  beseech  Thee,  merciful  Lord,  Thy  faithful 
people  pardon  and  peace,  that  they  may  be 
cleansed  from  all  their  sins  and  serve  Thee 

with  a quiet  mind  ” [Collect  for  21st  Sunday  after  Trinity]. 

But  there  is  an  immature  peace,  which  is  not 
generated  by  a true  repentance.  There  is  an 
insecure  peace,  which  does  not  spring  from 
the  favour  of  God.  The  false  assurance  rests 
on  something  within  us.  The  true  on  some 
one  without  and  above  us.  The  assurance  of 
my  own  feeling  may  be  the  heated  creation  of 


* See  for  another  statement  on  this  subject,  “ The  Pres- 
ence of  Christ,”  chap.  i. 


FORGIVENESS. 


103 


a deluded  fancy.  The  assurance  of  faith  rests 
as  on  a rock  upon  the  Person  and  Word  of 
God. 

Christ  has  died  for  me,  and  risen  again.  He 
invites  me  to  come  to  Him,  to  rest  on  Him, 
to  believe  His  love,  to  accept  His  salvation, 
to  receive  His  grace,  to  bear  His  yoke.  I will 
believe  His  love,  on  the  authority  of  His 
word,  far  above  what  I can  either  ask  or 
think.  I accept  the  salvation  which  the  voice 
of  His  quickening  Spirit  has  made  a supreme 
necessity  to  my  conscience,  and,  by  methods 
chosen  by  Himself,  has  brought  home  to  my 
heart.  I receive  His  grace,  through  the  chan- 
nels He  has  ordained  for  it,  themselves  im- 
portant witnesses  of  His  life  and  purpose — 
the  Word  and  Sacraments  — careful  not  to 
measure  it  by  my  own  unaccountable  and  un- 
controllable feelings  at  the  moment,  but  by 
His  own  promise  to  be  present  with  His  or- 
dinances. I accept  His  yoke,  perhaps  not  too 
cheerfully  at  first.  Yet  the  more  readily  I 
carry  it,  the  more  He  blesses  me,  and  the 
wider  the  freedom  that  I feel.  As  to  its  veri- 
fication, what  is  the  tenor  of  my  life,  and  the 
main  direction  of  my  will  ? The  play  of  my 


104 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


feelings  may  vary,  as  the  clouds  on  the 
mountain-side,  or  the  hues  of  the  tossing  sea, 
and  the  fault  be  none  of  mine.  But  if  my 
will  be  true,  that  is  all  that  really  matters. 
Disturbance  there  may  be,  perhaps  there 
must  be.  Sometimes  as  the  trial  of  our  faith, 
sometimes  as  the  recognition  of  faithful  en- 
durance, sometimes,  let  it  be  confessed,  from 
slacked  devotion,  grave  inconsistency,  in- 
dulged infirmity.  Then  it  is  God's  kind  and 
holy  frown.  Perhaps  the  soul  that  has  always 
the  same  amount  of  assurance  about  God,  and 
of  communion  with  Him,  may  have  reason  to 
doubt  the  soundness  of  the  one,  and  even  the 
existence  of  the  other.  While  the  soul,  that 
just  because  it  is  conscious  of  its  own  change- 
ableness, rests  on  God's  unchangeableness, 
shall  learn  habitually  to  look  away  from  itself, 
and  all  its  faults  and  caprices,  simply  and  un- 
interruptedly to  gaze  on  the  Lord. 

One  more  thought,  an  awful  one,  for  it  in- 
volves terrible  issues,  yet  so  much  in  front 
among  the  controversies  of  the  time,  that  one 
who  presumes  to  write  about  forgiveness, 
could  hardly  pass  it  over,  without,  at  least, 
one  word  to  counsel,  though  not  to  explain. 


FORGl  VENESS.  105 

A disciple  was  present  at  that  Doe y probation 
Paschal  Supper,  of  whom  it  was  en(ihere ? 
said  by  one  who  knows,  “ Good  were  it  for 
that  man  if  he  had  never  been  born  ” 
[Mark  xiv.  21].  Truly  awful  words.  Of  a certain 
sin,  that  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  same 
gentle  holy  Saviour  warned  His  hearers  that 
it  hath  no  forgiveness,  not  in  this  world,  nor 
in  the  world  to  come  [Matt.  xn.  323.  Again  the 
apostle  of  love,  St.  John,  in  his  general  Epis- 
tle, carefully  distinguishes  between  sins  about 
which  we  may  pray,  and  a sin  “ unto  death  ” 
[1  John  v.  16] — I do  not  say  he  shall  pray  for  it. 

Of  course  we  know  that  there  are  two  great 
lines  of  thought  on  this  question  of  the  final 
restoration  of  the  lost ; each  nobly  jealous  for 
the  character  of  God,  and  yearning  for  the 
salvation  of  man.  One  of  them  feels  out- 
raged by  the  supposed  injustice  to  His  mercy 
in  the  prospect  of  a hopeless  exile  from  His 
face  and  service,  for  those  who  pass  away  in 
impenitence.  The  other  is  so  profoundly  im- 
pressed by  the  unspeakable,  inconceivable  evil 
and  consequences  of  sin  in  the  universe,  and 
its  detestableness  before  Almighty  God,  that 
even  to  try  to  open  a door  of  mercy  which 


106  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

seems  closed,  may  mean  to  make  light  of 
what  God  abhors. 

Both,  however,  readily  admit  the  extreme 
peril  of  going  one  hair's  breadth  beyond  the 
Saviour's  own  utterances  on  this  matter ; also 
the  unconscious  yet  real  presumptuousness  of 
attempting  to  protect  God's  character  from 
His  own  revelation  of  it,  or  to  make  human 
mercy  and  human  righteousness  more  merci- 
ful and  more  righteous  than  His. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Holy  Scripture, 
from  the  tender  lips  of  the  Saviour,  contains 
awful  warnings  about  the  final  condition  of 
the  wicked,  which  it  is  a sort  of  impiety  to 
explain  away,  and  a grave  irreverence  to  sup- 
pose to  have  been  uttered  merely  to  frighten 
us.  When  He  who  so  loved  Jerusalem,  that 
He  died  for  it,  wept  over  it  because  He  could 
not  save  it,  were  those  dramatic  tears  ? 
“Doubtless  God  has  so  surprised  us  by  His 
former  acts  of  grace,  by  such  an  inconceivable 
interposition  in  the  Incarnation  and  the  Cross, 
that  it  does  not  become  us  to  say  that  any- 
thing is  impossible  with  Him,  except  to  deny 
Himself.  But  still  less  does  it  become  us, 
creatures  such  as  we  are,  who  know  so  little, 


FORGIVENESS. 


107 


whose  hearts  and  minds  are  so  feebly  under 
control,  whose  wills  are  so  treacherous,  whose 
passions  are  so  blinding,  either  to  narrow  or 
enlarge  His  words.  If,  indeed,  He  has  told  us 
of  more  than  we  supposed  His  words  to  mean, 
in  God's  name  let  it  be  shown.  If  not,  let  us 
take  care  what  we  are  doing.  We  may  be 
claiming  to  be  wiser  than  the  wisest,  more  lov- 
ing than  the  most  loving,  who  even  on  earth 
partially  lifted  the  veil  from  the  unseen  world ; 
and,  in  parable  and  vision,  disclosed  its  awful 
secrets."  * 

Silence  for  those  who  dare  not  add  to  a 
book,  which,  in  their  judgment,  at  this  page 
has  been  deliberately  closed,  trust  from  those 
whose  personal  experience  of  God's  love  and 
righteousness  make  them  infinitely  and  im- 
movably sure,  that  God  will  in  the  end  justify 
Himself  as  merciful  and  true  before  the  entire 
universe,  diligence  unwearied  and  tender,  from 
all  who  love  God  and  hate  sin,  and  wish  to 
make  their  brethren's  risks  as  little  as  they 
can,  by  doing  their  best  both  to  bring  them 
unto  light  and  love — here  seems  to  me  to  be 


* Dean  Church’s  Oxford  Sermon,  p.  119.  [The  entire 
sermon  should  be  read]. 


108  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

the  true  and  humble  wisdom  of  the  servants 
of  God.  To  preach  the  Gospel  of  One,  who 
is  mighty  to  save,  and  who  to  the  last,  though 
in  vain,  tried  to  save  even  Judas,  with  unfal- 
tering boldness  to  proclaim  the  sinfulness  of 
sin,  and  its  awful  unknown  reward,  here  and 
hereafter,  is  our  twofold  and  solemn  duty. 
Here,  also,  to  leave  it,  with  Him  who  is  both 
Saviour  and  Judge.  The  Gospel  of  mercy  to 
tender  and  gentle  hearts  will  ever  be  a more 
congenial  theme  ; but  the  Gospel  of  holiness  is 
at  least  as  needful.  Only  in  the  concord  of 
the  Divine  Perfections,  only  in  the  full  and 
unflinching  declaration  of  a full-orbed  doctrine, 
is  the  secret  of  a right  judgment  to  be  found. 

“ Discourses  about  the  restoration  of  all 
things,  are  about  something  that  we  have  not 
the  least  knowledge  of,  or  any  faculties  or 
foundation  for  such  knowledge ; we  have 
nothing  certain  or  plain  within  ourselves 
about  it,  and  so  have  nothing  to  oppose  to 
anything  that  is  told  us.  The  irrecoverable 
state  of  men  or  angels  is  a dreadful  thought 
to  us  ; our  sense  of  misery,  tenderness,  and 
compassion  for  our  fellow-creatures  makes  us 
wish  that  no  creatures  should  fall  into  it,  and 


FORGIVENESS. 


IO9 

we  are  unable  to  show  how  such  a state  should 
result  from  the  infinite  wisdom,  goodness,  and 
perfection  of  God.  But  then  we  must  consider 
that  we  are  here  governed  by  our  passions 
and  weakness,  and  only  form  a God  according 
to  our  own  conceptions.  For  my  own  part, 
this  one  saying,  ‘Shall  not  the  Judge  of  all 
the  earth  do  right/  is  a stronger  support  to 
my  mind,  and  a better  guard  against  all  anx- 
iety than  the  deepest  discoveries  that  the  most 
speculative,  inquisitive  minds  could  help  me 
to.  With  this  one  assurance  of  the  infinitely 
infinite  goodness  of  God,  I resign  up  myself, 
my  friends,  relatives,  men,  and  angels  to  the 
adorable,  yet  incomprehensible  disposal  of  His 
wisdom.”* 

Lastly,  is  any  reader  of  this  book  sore  and 
wounded  by  the  thought  of  past  unworthi- 
ness ; whose  reason  tells  him,  that  even  God 
cannot  make  it  as  though  it  had  not  been, 
but  that  nothing  can  be  done  now  to  repair 
or  diminish  what  has  been  written  down  in 
the  Books  that  are  to  be  opened?  Well,  my 
brother  or  my  sister,  I have  a Gospel  for  you. 
Be  humble  and  gentle,  be  charitable  and  for- 


* Rev.  W.  Law. 


no 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


bearing,  ever  considering,  when  others  fall, 
your  own  past  need  of  mercy,  and  how  great 
a forgiveness  God  has  bestowed  on  you. 

But  also  be  bright  and  fearless,  manful  and 
strong.  If  you  can  humbly  look  up  in  your 
Saviour's  face,  because  on  your  confession  and 
repentance,  He  has  cast  your  sins  behind  His 
back,  surely  you  may  look  your  neighbour  in 
the  face.  If  God  for  Christ’s  sake  has  con- 
sented to  forgive  you,  surely  your  brother 
may.  If  not — “if  God  be  for  us,  who  can 
be  against  us?”  [R0m.viii.3i].  You  are  not  alone 
in  your  sinful  history,  nor  in  your  past  expe- 
rience. Thousands  and  thousands  share  it 
with  you,  of  whom  the  Church  and  the  world 
dream  not.  In  the  great  multitude  which  no 
man  can  number,  plucked  as  brands  from  the 
burning,  everlasting  monuments  of  infinite 
grace,  will  be  David  and  the  Magdalen,  the 
great  Augustine,  and  the  author  of  “ The  Pil- 
grim’s Progress  ” ; also  a host  of  purified  souls 
that  deeply  sinned  and  passionately  repented, 
whose  early  transgressions  have  been  equitably 
and  generously  forgotten  in  the  grand  useful- 
ness of  their  after  lives  and  the  sweet  fra- 
grance of  their  sanctity. 


FORGIVENESS. 


Ill 


The  more  you  have  been  forgiven,  so  much 
the  more  thereby  you  know  of  God’s  patience 
and  compassion ; so  much  greater  the  burden 
laid  on  you  of  confessing  about  it  to  others. 
As  to  your  Heaven,  be  sure  of  this,  that  what- 
ever your  present  sadness,  or  still  unhealed 
remorse,  when  once  the  welcome  flashes  on 
you  from  the  face  of  the  Lamb  that  was  slain, 
there  will  be  perfect  soundness  and  cleanness 
in  the  presence  of  us  all.  As  you  look  into 
your  heart  and  feel  no  sin  there ; as  you  won- 
der at  the  whiteness  of  your  robe,  and  find  no 
stain  there,  the  sentence  will  steal  unto  your 
heart  and  heal  it  for  ever,  “ Clean  every  whit.” 


IV. 


DISCIPLINE. 


11  SHOW  ME  WHEREFORE  THOU  CONTENDEST  WITH  ME.” 

u The  whole  wisdom  and  magnanimity  of  life  consist 
in  a will  conformed  to  what  isy  with  a heart 
ready  for  what  is  not 

O you  condemn  that 
prayer  ? Why  ? To  J°^s  question 

me,  indeed,  it  seems 
the  most  reasonable  and  natural  and  becom- 
ing and  religious  thing  a sorrowful  man  could 
do.  Reasonable,  because  God's  contention 
with  him  was  a plain  intimation  that  he  had 
something  to  say  to  him  ; and  how  could  he 
discover  what  it  was  unless  he  asked  ? Natu- 
ral, for  is  not  that  just  what  we  desire  and 
expect  from  our  own  children  when  we  con- 
tend with  them  ? It  must  happen  sometimes 
with  the  best  children  and  the  kindest  par- 
ents, either  that  some  indulgence  has  to  be 
(112) 


DISCIPLINE . 


113 

withheld,  or  some  task  imposed,  or  some  re- 
serve manifested,  or  some  refusal  given.  Well, 
what  does  a parent  wish  for  under  such  cir- 
cumstances ? That  the  child  so  dealt  with 
should  go  on  in  its  daily  routine  with  a cold 
or  flippant  indifference,  or  that  it  should 
quickly  and  earnestly  inquire,  “ What  have  I 
done  ? ” Becoming,  for  this  reason.  The  wis- 
dom of  man  is  in  the  knowledge  of  God  ; and 
the  better  we  know  Him  the  wiser  we  be- 
come. But  the  knowledge  of  God,  just  like 
any  other  knowledge,  will  not  come  to  us 
simply  by  our  sitting  before  the  fire  and 
feebly  wishing  to  be  wise.  The  human  soul 
is  not  a dead  reservoir,  but  a living  organ. 
Most  of  all  is  such  a question  eminently  relig- 
ious when  it  has  a right  motive  beneath  it, 
and  a true  purpose  in  front.  What  is  the 
right  notion  of  religion  ? Surely  the  appre- 
hending of  God,  that  we  may  serve  Him  and 
enjoy  Him.  Yet  what  is  the  way  of  the  great 
mass  of  mankind  ? Is  it  not  to  do  their  best 
to  forget  Him,  to  use  Him  for  need  and  sor- 
row, to  ignore  Him  in  health  and  prosperity — 
never  to  take  the  trouble  of  asking  Him  ques- 
tions of  any  kind  — never  to  try  to  creep 


1 14  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

nearer  to  see  the  glory  of  His  face?  But  then 
you  may  ask,  Did  Job  put  this  question  in 
quite  a proper  manner?  Well,  I am  not  con- 
cerned to  go  into  that.  I fear  that  even  the 
nobleman  in  the  Gospel  may  have  been  guilty 
of  a little  bluntness,  when  with  his  child’s  life 
quivering  in  the  balance,  he  took  no  notice 
of  the  Lord’s  remark  about  signs  and  won- 
ders , just  blurted  out,  “ Sir,  come  down  ere 
my  child  die.”  The  Saviour  does  not  appear 
to  have  taken  offence  at  it.  That  troubled 
majestic  soul  may  possibly  have  expressed  it- 
self with  heat  and  even  anguish.  His  body 
was  consumed  with  disease.  His  spirit  was 
blistered  with  the  cruel  provocations  of  his 
friends.  Everything  in  life  he  cared  for 
seemed  gone.  Even  his  own  wife  had  given 
him  up,  instead  of  strengthening  and  consol- 
ing him.  Was  he  to  lose  God  as  well  ? His 
heart  said  no  to  that ; “ O God,  do  not  Thou 
condemn  me  ; rather  show  me  wherefore  Thou 
contendest  with  me.” 

Now  let  us  think  out  together  the  true 
answer  to  this  question,  suggested  to  us  all 
in  turn  by  the  trials  of  life.  Only  the  area 
in  which  our  inquiry  shall  move  must  be  a lit- 


DISCIPLINE. 


115 

tie  wider  than  Job’s.  A careful  study  of  the 
patriarch’s  history  makes  it  plain  that  the 
main  object  of  the  Divine  purpose  in  Job’s 
trials  was  to  show  that  there  is  such  a thing 
possible  as  disinterested  love  to  God.  “ Doth 
Job  serve  God  for  nought”  [Job  i.  9i  was  the 
coarse  and  bitter  sneer  of  the  adversary.  Try 
and  see,  replied  Jehovah.  The  result  is  before 
us  ; on  the  whole  Job  did,  and,  in  God’s  never- 
failing  righteousness,  a plentiful  recompense 
was  requited  him  for  having  been  made  what 
some  might  call  the  victim  of  an  important 
experiment  for  the  Church  at  large.  For  he 
was  even  more  blessed  in  the  end  than  in  the 
beginning,  and  no  saint  in  all  the  Bible  at- 
tracts more  of  our  sympathy,  or  deserves 
more  of  our  imitation,  than  this  grand  tried 
man. 

Already  I have  said  that  we  are  each  to  try 
to  find  the  true  answer  to  this  question,  when- 
ever it  comes  home  to  ourselves.  But  we  shall 
have  no  answer  unless  we  do  ask  for  it.  Al- 
ways let  us  ask,  and  at  once.  In  that  case  we 
may  be  sure  of  one ; for  Job,  you  see,  got  his, 
though  slowly  and  gradually.  Certainly  he 
would  not  have  got  it  had  he  been  wrong  in 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


1 16 

asking  for  it.  Sooner  or  later  we,  too,  shall 
have  ours,  though  should  we  have  to  wait 
longer  for  it  than  we  like,  it  may  be  our  Lord 
saying  to  us : “ Tarry  thou  my  leisure,  be 
strong,  and  I will  comfort  thy  heart.” 

How  does  God  contend  with  us? 

God’s  ways  of  To  select  five  instances  out  of 
contending.  many:  He  deals  with  us  in  the 
sphere  of  the  mind  through  mystery,  in  the 
sphere  of  the  affections  through  bereavement, 
in  the  sphere  of  the  body  through  sickness, 
in  the  sphere  of  the  will  through  disappoint- 
ment, in  the  sphere  of  the  conscience  through 
remorse.  Not  necessarily  with  any  of  us  in  all 
these  ways,  though  some  of  us  know  a little 
about  them  all ; seldom  by  more  than  one  of 
them  at  once,  perhaps  never  with  many,  or 
we  should  die.  But  ever  as  a wise  and  kind 
physician,  He  deals  out  to  each  of  us  the  in- 
dividual treatment  that  precisely  suits  us.  As 
a refiner  of  silver  He  waits  till  He  can  see  His 
own  image  reflected  in  us ; and  instantly  takes 
us  out  when  the  refining  is  done. 

In  the  sphere  of  the  under- 
standing He  contends  with  us 
through  mystery,  which,  while  it  does  not 


DISCIPLINE . 


ii  7 

make  an  utter  darkness,  impresses  us  with  the 
profoundness  of  our  ignorance,  and  of  our  ut- 
ter incapacity  quite  to  escape  it.  The  vast- 
ness of  nature,  the  presence  of  evil,  the  future 
of  mankind,  the  fact  of  conscience,  the  power 
of  circumstances,  the  instinct  of  immortality, 
apart,  and  together ; in  a word,  the  incessant 
and  insoluble  problems  of  the  universe,  some- 
times fall  on  man’s  spirit,  depressing  action  if 
not  compelling  despair.  Within  the  sphere  of 
dogma  such  lofty  and  critical  truths  as  the 
Godhead  of  Christ,  and  the  nature  of  the 
atonement,  and  the  value  of  the  sacraments, 
to  sensitive  souls  that  love  the  truth,  and  in 
consequence  of  that  love,  prize  it  so  highly 
that  they  dare  not  be  easily  sure  of  having 
attained  it,  mean  mental  conflict — sometimes 
spiritual — amounting  to  agony.  We  honour 
them  for  it,  and  dare  not  hurry  nor  judge 
them,  while  we  would  gladly  welcome  them 
into  our  light.  To  them  it  is  a fiery  trial.  Or 
former  convictions  come  suddenly  to  be  in  a 
state  of  flux.  Principles,  thought  to  be  set- 
tled long  ago,  are  painfully  disturbed  by  a 
doubt  that  hamstrings  our  firm  hold  of  them. 
Nothing  seems  certain  but  that  nothing  can  be 


n8  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

proved.  We  were  born  and  we  shall  die.  Of 
what  else  can  we  be  sure  ? 

In  the  sphere  of  the  affections 
Bereavement.  _ , , . - 1 . 

God  contends  with  us  through 

bereavement . What  love  in  all  the  world  is  so 
God-like,  so  exquisite,  so  pure,  so  unselfish,  as 
the  love  of  an  affectionate  parent  for  a pre- 
cious child ; especially  if  there  is  but  one 
parent  left,  who  feels  to  owe  the  debt  of  a 
doubtful  tenderness! 

The  infant  has  our  caresses ; but  as  infancy 
passes  into  childhood,  and  childhood  slowly 
matures  into  responsible  youth,  this  love  is 
deepened  by  sympathy,  rooted  in  augmenting 
experience,  cemented  by  association,  beatified 
by  the  joy  of  mutual  sacrifice.  The  child, 
growing  into  the  companion,  presently  be- 
comes the  friend.  The  daughter  takes  the 
mother’s  place  by  the  side  of  her  father ; the 
son  makes  a strong  arm  on  which  his  widowed 
mother  can  lean.  Then  into  this  sweet  Para- 
dise creeps  the  cold  shadow  of  disease ; and 
the  beloved  child,  like  some  sweet  jasmine, 
cut  by  an  early  frost,  pales,  sickens,  withers, 
at  last  dies ; and  it  is  a loss  which  nothing 
afterwards  fills  up  or  ought  to  fill  up ; a grief 


DISCIPLINE. 


1 19 

which  gnaws  the  heart  with  a corroding  sad- 
ness. “ I will  go  down  into  the  grave  unto 
my  son,  mourning”  [Gen. xxxvu. 35].  Jacob's  com- 
plaint is  the  soul's  first,  and  sometimes  abid- 
ing consolation  in  the  loyalty  of  a passionate 
sorrow. 

In  the  sphere  of  the  body,  He  ^ 
contends  with  us  through  sick- 
ness. This,  in  Job's  case,  was  the  final  calam- 
ity that  crushed  him  to  the  earth,  about  which, 
the  mysterious  adversary,  malignant  in  his 
vast  experience  of  human  nature,  eagerly  said 
to  Jehovah,  u Skin  for  skin,  yea,  all  that  a man 
hath,  will  he  give  for  his  life  ” [.iobii.4].  Ob- 
serve further  that  this  is  true,  not  so  much  or 
only  because  a man's  selfishness  resents  with 
especial  keenness  what  so  intimately  touches 
the  vital  springs  of  his  being,  but  because  the 
body,  being  the  material  shrine  or  organ,  both 
of  his  domestic  affections,  and  his  mental  en- 
dowments and  his  personal  enjoyments,  and 
his  daily  activities,  in  sickness  the  wheels  of 
life  are  for  the  moment  paralyzed,  by  death 
finally  stayed.  In  clouding  our  intellect,  in 
depressing  our  energies,  in  interrupting  our 
duties,  in  suspending  our  pleasures,  sickness 


120 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


at  once  diminishes  our  dignity  and  impairs 
our  usefulness. 

Yet  it  is  not  so  much  in  what  it  causes  now 
as  in  what  it  threatens  presently  that  its  keen- 
est sting  is  to  be  found.  Across  the  distant 
future  the  sick  man  sends  the  messengers  of 
uneasy  and  trembling  conjectures  to  ask  if  a 
cloud  is  rising  over  the  sea.  It  may  not  come 
to-day,  nor  to-morrow ; but  there  is  a morrow 
when  it  must  come,  be  our  children  reared  or 
not  reared,  be  our  life's  task  finished,  or  only 
one-third  done.  The  vapour,  no  bigger  than 
a man's  hand,  is  already  on  the  horizon  for 
some  one  who  reads  these  words ; when  it  be- 
gins to  climb  the  sky,  and  the  rapid  scud  floats 
over  the  azure,  we  know  what  it  means : we 
are  in  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death. 

Disappoint-  In  the  sphere  of  the  will  He 

ment.  contends  with  us  (to  take  one 

instance  only)  through  disappointment.  It 
may  be  some  coveted  promotion,  a post  we 
could  suitably  fill,  and  perhaps  deserve  to  fill, 
a distinction  which  would  carry  with  it  the  ap- 
proval of  a laborious  life.  When  we  are  denied 
it,  a sense  of  injustice  wounds  us,  for  in  such 
moments  an  exaggerated  self-consciousness 


DISCIPLINE. 


1 2 1 


makes  us  forget  that  there  are  others  in  the 
world  meritorious  like  ourselves.  It  seems  a 
very  thankless  task,  again  to  begin  to  roll  the 
stone  up  a hill  which  it  will  never  clamber. 
The  heart  wraps  up  itself  in  its  pride,  and 
tries,  in  vain,  to  be  content.  Or  the  prize, 
which  we  thought,  could  we  gain  it,  would 
make  our  life  a long  midsummer,  now  that  it 
is  ours,  turns  out  no  prize  at  all,  and  a tie  in- 
dissoluble, and  with  no  place  for  repentance, 
is  the  secret  worm  of  our  life's  content.  Of 
all  fatal  errors  in  this  world,  and  the  only 
wonder  is  that  it  is  not  multiplied  ten  thou- 
sandfold, the  most  fatal  and  the  most  sorrow- 
ful is  that  of  an  unhappy  marriage.  The 
heart  knoweth  its  own  bitterness,  and  self- 
respect  keeps  it  a hidden  bitterness.  Yet  bit- 
ter it  is,  and  with  no  hope  about  it,  where  a 
gulf  separates  two  natures  which  never  can 
know  sympathy ; still  worse,  if  to  scorn  is 
added  cruelty,  not  indeed  of  hands,  but  of 
sharp  and  poisoned  words. 

In  the  sphere  of  conscience 

TT  , . . . , . Sense  of  sin. 

He  contends  with  us  by  the 

sense  of  sin.  This  was  eminently  the  case 

with  Job.  It  is  always  more  or  less  the  case, 


122 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 


even  with  those  who  personally  know  Him  as 
God  that  pardoneth  iniquity ; how  much  more 
with  those,  to  whose  inmost  spirit  the  fact 
and  guilt  and  consequences  of  sin  have  yet  to 
be  brought  home ! 

In  some  respects  this  is  the  most  awful  and 
intolerable  of  all — let  me  add,  the  most  blessed. 
For  a human  soul  to  be  brought  face  to  face 
with  the  awful  holiness  of  God,  and  to  be 
made  to  see  the  moral  chasm  between  what 
He  is  and  what  they  find  themselves  ; to  come 
to  see  for  the  first  time  what  sin  deserves,  and 
righteousness  demands,  and  God  remembers, 
and  memory  recalls,  and  conscience  admits, 
and  perhaps  neighbours  whisper:  to  be  dumb 
before  Him,  since  no  denial  is  possible,  and 
be  abashed  before  Him,  since  there  is  no  ex- 
cuse to  make ! When  God  contended  with 
Saul,  he  remained  three  days,  and  did  neither 
eat  nor  drink;  from  Job  the  answer  was,  “I 
am  vile,  what  shall  I answer  Thee ; I will  lay 
my  hand  on  my  mouth  ” [jobxi.u. 

Christian  reader,  when  thou  passest  through 
this  consuming  fire,  do  not  wish  to  quench  it, 
do  not  fear  its  shrivelling  thee  into  dust.  The 
holiness  of  thy  Father  is  contending  with 


DISCIPLINE . 


123 


thee,  that  thou  mayest  presently  partake  of 
it — listen  to  it,  it  speaks  in  love ; let  the  one 
name  thou  namest  be  that  of  Jesus;  thy  one 
humble  pleading,  “ Is  there  not  forgiveness 
with  thee,  therefore  thou  mayest  be  feared.” 

What  then — if  such  thy  lot — thou  seest  thy  Judge, 
The  sight  of  Him  will  kindle  in  thy  heart 
All  tender,  gracious,  reverential  thoughts. 

Thou  wilt  be  sick  with  love,  and  yearn  for  Him, 

And  feel  as  though  thou  could’st  but  pity  Him, 

That  one  so  sweet  should  e’er  have  placed  Himself 
At  disadvantage,  such  as  to  be  used 
So  vilely  by  a being  so  vile  as  thee, 

And  thou  wilt  hate  and  loathe  thyself  ; 


. . . . . and  wilt  desire 

To  slink  away,  and  hide  thee  from  His  sight ; 

And  yet  wilt  have  a longing  eye  to  dwell 
Within  the  beauty  of  His  countenance. 

And  these  two  pains,  so  counter  and  so  keen, 

The  longing  for  Him,  when  Thou  seest  Him  not, 

The  shame  of  self  at  thought  of  seeing  Him — 

Will  be  thy  veriest,  sharpest  purgatory. 

— Dream  of  Gerontius. 

For  why  does  God  contend?  why  does  God 
Through  mystery  He  would  dis-  contend? 
cipline  faith,  yes,  and  in  some  of  us,  character. 
Surely  it  is  better  to  think  and  to  be  troubled 


124 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


by  our  thinking,  than  not  to  think  and  have  the 
base  peace  of  a brute.  Bishop  Butler,  with 
that  tenderness  which  sometimes  characterizes 
really  great  thinkers,  has  suggested  (as  many 
of  us  will  remember)  that  difficulties  of  belief 
may  not  only  be  permitted,  but  intended  for 
the  temptation  of  characters  of  a certain  type, 
to  which  coarser  temptations  would  have  no 
attraction.  Let  us  not  for  a moment  suppose 
that  God  discourages  the  use  of  reason.  Why 
should  He  disown  perhaps  the  noblest  of  His 
own  gifts?  Nor  does  He  depreciate  knowl- 
edge. The  more  we  have  of  it,  and  of  all 
sorts,  the  better.  Nor  does  it  displease  Him 
that  we  ask  questions.  Perhaps  what  He  de- 
sires is  that  we  should  ask  more,  if  only  they 
are  of  the  sort  that  can  be  answered.  For  to 
give  us  answers  that  would  be  beyond  us, 
would  be  no  kindness  at  all.  But  He  would 
have  us  see  that  our  faculties  are  of  necessity 
limited ; and  that  it  is  both  our  wisdom  and 
our  dutifulness  to  accept  the  limitation  of 
them.  In  the  sphere  of  Revelation  the  laws 
of  physical  research  do  not  hold.  For  the  in- 
dispensable method  of  educating  the  spiritual 
nature  of  man  is  faith. 


DISCIPLINE. 


125 


To  recognize  what  we  cannot  explain,  and 
to  consent  that  it  should  not  be  explained,  is 
the  humility  of  true  wisdom.  To  accept  what 
we  could  not  otherwise  have  known,  on  the 
authority  of  God's  revealed  word,  is  the  obe- 
dience of  Faith. 

Through  bereavement  God  would  stir  love 
— love  to  Himself.  It  is  sometimes  said  in  a 
loose  and  shallow — yes,  and  cruel  way — that 
bereavements  are  a divine  protest  against  idol- 
atry. Occasionally  this  may  be  true,  but  very 
often  they  are  not  protests  at  all.  To  the 
soul  transplanted  into  Paradise,  it  means  a 
gracious  welcome  into  the  joy  of  the  Lord. 
To  those  left  behind  it  is  the  silent  appeal 
of  an  unspeakable  tenderness.  “ Lovest  thou 
me?"  God  does  not  grudge  us  our  human 
love.  I protest  against  that  thought  as  a 
libel  upon  Him.  He  has  made  us  and  com- 
manded us  to  love  each  other.  This  would 
be  a far  better  and  happier  world  if  there  were 
more  love  in  it  instead  of  less.  The  more  we 
love  each  other,  the  more  we  fulfil  His  pur- 
pose and  resemble  Himself.  But  He  does 
claim  the  first  place  in  our  regard,  and  the 
only  altar  in  our  home ; and  it  is  a question  if 


126 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 


He  often  gets  it,  or  even  can  get  it,  till  He 
comes  Himself  to  ask  for  it  with  a voice  there 
is  no  resisting.  While  we  may  safely  cherish 
the  memory  of  those  who  are  taken  even  with 
a sad  and  passionate  tenderness,  we  are  also 
to  listen  to  the  voice  that  whispers  to  us  in 
our  sorrow,  “ Thy  brother  shall  rise  again — 
now,  be  more  to  me.” 

Through  sickness  He  would  compel  de- 
pendence. Here  let  us  be  quite  honest.  Un- 
less fear  startled  us,  or  pain  unnerved  us,  or 
mortality  overshadowed  us,  what  a Godless 
world  this  redeemed  earth  would  be ! But 
for  sickness,  there  would  be  no  mile-stones  to 
tell  us  of  the  ever-nearing  Eternity.  But  for 
sickness,  we  should  never  know  either  God’s 
power  or  man’s  love. 

Another  reason  for  discipline  is  to  enable 
us,  through  a quickened  sympathy  with  those 
who  suffer,  and  a personal  gratefulness  for 
God’s  unspeakable  tenderness,  to  “ comfort 
them  which  are  in  any  trouble,  by  the  com- 
fort wherewith  we  ourselves  are  comforted  of 
God”  [2  C<»r.  i.  4]. 

“Are  the  consolations  of  God  small  with 
thee?”  [job xv. ii]  is  a very  searching  question 


DISCIPLINE . 


127 


sometimes  put  to  us  by  others,  better  still  by 
ourselves,  and  what  answer  can  we  give  to  it? 
As  hinted  elsewhere,  there  is  a vicarious  ele- 
ment in  all  holy  sorrow,  not  indeed  to  help  us 
to  atone,  but  to  understand  and  heal ; for  to 
know  how  to  comfort  is  one  of  the  rarest  as 
well  as  blessedest  of  the  Christian  virtues.  It 
is  not  only  saying  the  right  thing,  but  saying 
it  in  the  right  way,  and  at  the  right  moment. 
Nay,  sometimes  it  is  not  speaking  at  all — si- 
lence may  be  its  most  expressive  channel. 
The  look  of  the  eye,  the  pressure  of  the  hand, 
the  very  feeling  that  your  mere  presence  cre- 
ates of  intelligent,  if  helpless,  sadness  is  com- 
fort. You  cannot  do  it  unless  you  have  been 
through  trouble  yourself ; nay,  it  takes  years 
to  acquire  the  subtle  tact  to  feel  the  moment 
when  you  have  said  enough,  and  had  better 
go  away.  Indeed,  this  art  of  consolation  is  a 
delicate  art,  only  learned  in  the  school  of 
Christ,  and  its  secret  is  love,  built  on  experi- 
ence. For  when  He  consoles,  we  learn  and 
see  it  all.  Who  consoles  like  Him?  It  is 
worth  a good  deal  of  trouble  to  learn  to  feel 
sin  hateful,  and  to  come  to  measure  the  world 
at  its  true  worth,  as  a weaned  child  to  rest 


128 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 


softly  on  the  bosom  of  God,  and  to  feel 
Heaven  so  real  and  so  near,  that  to  go  there 
at  once  would  only  be  like  stepping  into  the 
next  room.  To  be  taught  truly  to  say  to 
God,  “ Thou  art  my  portion/’  and  thereby  to 
learn  how  to  press  it  on  others,  is  worth  the 
heaped-up  sorrows  of  a life.  No  one  can 
comprehend  the  Divine  tenderness  but  those 
whose  souls  have  been  drenched  with  it. 
Christ  is  so  gentle,  that  He  is  like  a mother 
hanging  over  us ; so  humble,  that  He  pa- 
tiently waits  our  time  till  we  turn  and  listen  ; 
so  compassionate,  that  He  is  ready  to  have  us 
on  any  terms ; so  filled  with  kindness,  that  we 
seem  to  hear  Him  say,  “ Come  as  you  are,  and 
say  what  you  will,  only  trust  me.” 

Once  more,  through  various  disappoint- 
ments, He  would  have  us  search  the  motives 
of  our  conduct,  analyse  its  principles,  count 
up  its  mercies,  and  understand  its  reward. 
Sometimes  they  come  to  test  us.  Are  we 
serving  God  for  Himself  or  for  His  gifts? 
With  all  of  us,  motives  are  mixed.  Still,  does 
self  preponderate  ? Sometimes  they  are  har- 
bingers of  success ; and  a brief  chagrin,  re- 
sisted with  manliness  and  effaced  by  generos- 


DISCIPLINE. 


129 


ity,  soon  is  surprised  by  the  final  accomplish- 
ment of  its  hopes.  Sometimes  it  is  to  give 
the  soul  a great  opportunity  of  surrendering 
its  will  to  God, and  of  saying,  “only  Thyself.” 
Always  it  must  be  to  stir  prayer,  to  purify 
conduct,  to  make  us  touch  the  sceptre  of  the 
King,  offering  better  things  presently,  with 
the  joyous  grasp  of  faith.  “ It  is  better,” 
says  to  itself  the  chastened  soul,  “ as  it  is, 
though  I could  never  have  chosen  it  for  my- 
self, and  could  not  safely  be  consulted  as  to 
its  disappearing.  God  has  chosen  for  me,  and 
the  spaces  of  eternity  are  before  Him,  and  it 
is  all  an  education  for  the  real  life  in  front. 
I am  glad  that  He  should  choose ; and  if  in  a 
momentary  petulance  I fret  at  His  will,  He 
will  remember  that  I am  only  a child  ; and 
will  not  hastily  confound  a transient  impa- 
tience with  a deliberate  rebelliousness.” 

Lastly,  through  a sense  of  sin  He  would 
ripen  holiness  and  deepen  humility,  and  pro- 
mote a stern,  watchful  self-control.  Job,  as 
you  will  observe,  if  you  read  the  book  care- 
fully, never  denied  that  he  was  a sinner.  In 
one  of  his  saddest  appeals,  he  expressly  says 
to  God,  “ Thou  makest  me  to  possess  the  in- 
9 


1 30  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

iquities  of  my  youth  ” [job  xni.  26].  Really  all 
that  he  did  say  was,  that  his  manhood  had 
been  upright  and  pure.  Well,  if  it  had  been, 
it  had  been  ; and  for  him  to  have  admitted 
that  it  had  been  otherwise  would  have  been 
weakly  consenting  to  a lie.  But  his  friends, 
who  could  not  explain  his  calamities  otherwise 
than  as  the  Divine  visitation  of  some  terrible 
though  unknown  iniquity,  insisted  on  his  con- 
fessing what  had  never  happened  ; and  he 
would  have  died  sooner  than  do  that.  “ Till 
I die  I will  not  remove  mine  integrity  from 
me”  [job  -xxvii.  5].  Was  he  not  right  ? Glearly  he 
was.  What,  then,  was  Job's  error  and  neces- 
sity ? His  error  was  that  he  set  too  much 
store  by  his  beneficent  and  upright  life,  and 
that  he  had  not  learnt  enough  of  the  Divine 
righteousness  and  of  his  own  vast  imperfec- 
tion to  set  his  personal  goodness  at  its  right 
value.  His  necessity  was  to  have  a deeper 
sense  of  the  sinfulness  of  sin,  and  a more 
humbling  estimate  of  his  own  goodness. 
Therefore  God  in  His  great  love  to  him 
brought  back  his  sin  to  his  remembrance, 
and  made  him  mourn  afresh,  not  because  it 
had  not  been  already  pardoned,  rather  just 


DISCIPLINE. 


131 

because  it  was ; and  in  the  end,  out  of  a hum- 
bled and  broken  heart,  the  great  patriarch, 
like  a sorrowful  and  chastened  child,  sobbed 
out  his  memorable  confession  into  the  ear  of 
his  Father : “ I have  heard  of  Thee  by  the 
hearing  of  the  ear,  but  now  mine  eye  seeth 
Thee.  Wherefore  I abhor  myself,  and  repent 
in  dust  and  ashes”  [Job xiii. 5, 6]. 

“ Heaven  is  not  mounted  to  on  wings  of  dreams, 

Nor  doth  the  unthankful  happiness  of  youth 
Aim  thitherward,  but  floats  from  bloom  to  bloom, 
With  earth’s  warm  patch  of  sunshine  well  content. 
Tis  sorrow  builds  the  shining  ladder  up, 

Whose  golden  rounds  are  our  calamities, 

Whereon  our  firm  feet  planting,  nearer  God 
The  spirit  climbs,  and  hath  its  eyes  unsealed.” 

— Lowell. 


One  other  reason  for  discipline  I have  kept  to 
the  last,  for  there  is  a good  deal  to  say  about 
it,  and  it  is  a blessed  Gospel  for  us  all. 


j]OU  remember  Christ's  ques-  slowness  in 
tion  to  Philip  on  the  night  learning  Christ. 
of  the  betrayal : “ Have  I been  so  long  time 
with  you,  and  yet  hast  thou  not  known  me  ? ” 
[John  xiv.  9].  Evidently  the  real  spirit  of  that 


132 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


question  was  a pained  surprise.  Surprise,  for 
in  the  perfectness  of  His  humanity  it  simply 
amazed  Him  that  one  who  for  so  long  had 
observed  His  acts,  heard  His  words,  and  en- 
joyed His  society,  could  so  feebly  have  com- 
prehended the  motive  and  the  nature  of  His 
work.  Pained  surprise,  for  in  this  strange, 
dull  slowness,  there  was  not  altogether  lack- 
ing the  element  of  sin.  Once  before,  indeed, 
He  had  asked  of  them  as  a body:  “ How  is  it 
that  ye  do  not  understand?”  [Markviii.21].  It  is 
fair  to  observe  that  those  were  early  days  of 
excusable  ignorance.  But  in  the  last  six 
months  both  His  discourses  and  miracles 
ought  to  have  opened  a new  window  into 
Heaven. 

Had  there  been  more  devotion,  there  might 
have  been  more  intelligence ; for  though  love 
cannot  create  ideas,  it  sets  them  moving  and 
burning.  In  truth,  it  was  just  one  more  thorn 
in  that  crown  of  sharpness  which  had  begun 
to  pierce  His  brow. 

But  we  must  not  linger  in  that  upper  cham- 
ber, with  all  its  holy,  though  mournful  mem- 
ories. Across  the  silent  years  that  separate 
us  from  the  Apostles,  that  question  descends 


DISCIPLINE . 


133 


to  us,  and  Jesus,  though  crowned  with  glory, 
still  sadly  asks  those  who  profess  to  believe 
on  Him,  “ Have  I been  so  long  with  you,  and 
yet  you  have  not  known  me  ? ” 

Now  there  are  two  chief  thoughts  in  these 
words,  gleaming  with  searching  light,  both 
on  heart  and  conscience.  One  is  the  fact,  of 
vital  significance,  that  it  is  quite  possible  for 
us  to  be  with  Christ,  and  for  Christ  to  be  with 
us,  and  yet  for  us  not  really  to  know  Him. 
The  other,  its  correlative  — the  discovery  of 
which  is  the  first  beating  of  our  conscious 
spiritual  life,  as  the  going  on  to  master  it  is 
the  perfection  of  its  strength  — is,  that  the 
only  true  way  of  knowing  Christ  is  to  see 
Him  as  the  Revelation  of  the  Father.  Here 
is  the  Gospel  indeed. 

“ So  long  time.”  Here,  of  course,  is  the 
sting  of  the  reproach.  Doubtless  He  had 
been  with  others  also,  and  to  no  better  pur- 
pose. He  had  been  with  the  multitudes  who 
thronged  and  pressed  Him,  but  did  not  reach 
Him  with  the  touch  of  faith.  He  had  drawn 
to  His  side  a rich  young  man,  who  admired 
Him  enough  to  consent  to  some  sacrifice  for 
Him,  yet  could  not  sufficiently  trust  Him  to 


134 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


surrender  all.  A scribe  had  cordially  praised 
Him,  and  was  told  that  he  was  on  the  edge  of 
the  kingdom,  though  not  yet  quite  inside  it. 
The  children  sang  Hosanna  in  the  Temple  ; 
and  the  officers  sent  to  seize  Him  were  spell- 
bound. Yet  all  went  for  nothing,  when  His 
foes  hemmed  Him  in  for  His  final  Passion. 
The  rays  of  His  Divine  glory  had  fallen  on 
those  hard  hearts  as  an  Arctic  sunbeam  on 
icebergs.  They  flashed  and  glittered,  yet 
when  night  came  it  found  them  frozen  still. 
But  for  St.  Peter,  who  had  confessed  His  God- 
head, and  for  Thomas,  who  had  proposed  to 
go  and  die  with  Him,  and  for  Philip,  whom 
Pie  had  taken  such  special  pains  to  choose — 
for  these  not  yet  to  have  discerned  in  Him 
the  Word  made  flesh,  full  of  grace  and  truth, 
must  have  brought  to  the  great  Teachers 
heart  one  of  those  pangs  of  disappointment 
which  those  who  try  to  serve  Him  now  find 
so  hard  to  bear. 

Yet  the  lesson  which  this  fact  discloses, 
and  of  which  it  is  the  inevitable  correlative, 
is  of  more  moment  still.  Philip  had  said, 
“ Lord,  show  us  the  Father,  and  it  sufficeth 
us  ” [John  xiv.  8].  O surely  it  was  a lofty  prayer, 


DISCIPLINE. 


135 

and  we  may  be  thankful  to  catch  something 
of  the  nobleness  of  its  spirit.  Yet  it  showed 
an  ignorance  of  Christ,  of  which  more  among 
us  are  guilty  than  we  suspect.  For  there  are 
various  ways  of  knowing  Christ,  and  they  are 
all  good  in  their  way,  if  only  they  are  vital- 
ized with  that  spiritual  apprehension  of  Him 
which  is  Eternal  Life.  Without  it,  they  are 
but  as  the  paper  and  ink  of  a mouldy  parch- 
ment. 

We  may  know  Him  “ after  the  flesh,”  as 
Judas  Iscariot  knew  Him,  and  yet  smoothly 
kissed  Him  to  His  Cross.  We  may  know  Him 
sacramentally  in  the  corporate  knitting  of  our 
redeemed  nature  to  His  Incarnate  Person, 
and  yet  the  outward  incorporation  may  never 
become  truly  consummated  by  quickening  and 
perfecting  grace.  We  may  know  Him  dog- 
matically, and  have  all  the  glorious  truths  of 
the  Catholic  Creed  in  our  mind  and  on  our 
lips ; and  yet  some  day  He  may  be  forced  to 
say,  “ I never  knew  you,  for  you  have  never 
known  me  by  love.”  Christian  reader,  do  you 
really  care  to  know  how  you  must  know  Him 
if  you  would  escape  that  reproach?  He  tells 
us  here,  further  on,  “ He  that  hath  seen  me 


136  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

hath  seen  the  Father  ” [johnxiv.9].  You  ask,  “ How 
is  He  the  Revelation  of  the  Father;  how  you 
and  I and  all  of  us,  now  as  well  as  then,  here- 
after as  well  as  to-day,  can  discover  in  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  the  mind  and  character  of  God?” 
Let  me  give  two  instances  now.  Several 
others  may  occur  to  us  further  on.  He  was  a 
revelation  of  His  Fathers  Providence  in  the 
government  of  the  world,  which  did  not  make 
things  easier  or  pleasanter  for  Him,  though 
He  was  the  Son  of  His  Eternal  Love,  bent 
on  doing  His  will.  It  sent  Him  to  poverty 
and  toil  and  misinterpretation,  and  that 
mournful,  awful  solitariness  which  is  ever  the 
penalty,  and  reward,  and  sure  mark  of  lofty, 
saintly  souls,  moving  on  in  front  of  their  time. 
It  did  not  spare  Him  anything  painful,  did 
not  recompense  Him  with  outward  human  de- 
lights because  of  His  righteousness,  did  not 
prevent  sorrow  nor  banish  care.  The  “ all 
things”  were  the  same  for  Him,  as  for  any 
one  else,  nothing  softened,  nothing  altered. 
He  was  also  the  revelation  of  Plis  Father’s 
Nature,  which,  described  in  a single  word,  is 
Love.  As  in  Him  we  see  the  ideal  for  man 
accomplished,  so  we  see  the  Perfection  of  God 


DISCIPLINE. 


137 


revealed  ; and  His  human  life  is  the  mirror  in 
which  perfect  man  and  perfect  God  are  shown. 
God's  love  is  of  course  mainly  set  forth  in 
His  bountifulness  and  compassion,  and  firm- 
ness and  patience,  and  wisdom  and  strength  : 
but  most  of  all  (for  a moment  to  anticipate 
the  following  chapter)  in  His  spirit  of  sacri- 
fice. No  one  is  a true  parent  who  is  not 
capable  of  sacrifice  for  his  children  ; and  this 
must  not  be  merely  because  he  desires  thereby 
to  win  and  enlarge  their  love,  for  then  it 
would  only  be  a subtle  selfishness.  Besides, 
they  will  never  love  their  parents  as  their 
parents  love  them  ; it  is  idle,  if  not  unreason- 
able, to  expect  it.  But  because  they  are  ours 
and  God's  choicest  gift  to  us,  and  we  desire 
their  highest  welfare,  we  are  content  to  suffer 
for  their  sake.  This  thought  is  surely  con- 
tained in  St.  Paul's  expression,  indicating,  in 
the  Father  of  our  spirits  giving  His  Son  for 
us,  the  unspeakable  value  and  meaning  of  that 
sacrifice.  “ He  that  spared  not  His  own  Son, 
but  gave  Him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  He  not 
with  Him  also  freely  give  us  all  things?" 
[Rom.  viii.32].  Here  is  the  Gospel  indeed  ! The 
Father's  heart  towards  His  Son,  when  the 


1 38  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

sense  of  His  Father's  presence  was  no  longer 
felt  by  Him,  at  the  time  when  He  most  need- 
ed it,  and  (if  human  language  on  such  a mat- 
ter be  not  presumptuous)  most  deserved  it ; 
who  shall  fathom  the  tenderness  in  it,  or  ex- 
pound the  mystery  of  that  awful  loneliness? 
What  we  can  imagine  is,  what  it  would  cost 
any  of  us  to  refuse  the  consolation  of  our  love 
to  a child,  at  the  moment  he  was  dying  to 
serve  us ; what  we  are  intended  to  observe,  is 
the  greatness  of  the  love  that  perfected  the 
redemption  of  men  ! But  we  shall  dwell  on 
this  again. 

Christian  reader,  I dare  to  hope  that  if  you 
have  been  in  any  sort  of  way  trying  to  under- 
stand this  question  of  Christ,  and  what  comes 
out  of  it,  you  will  have  been  set  thinking  as 
to  its  possible  relation  to  you,  and  what  that 
Voice  says  to  your  own  spirit.  Anyhow,  do 
not  say,  “ It  is  not  for  me."  It  is  indeed. 
With  the  great  bulk  of  intelligent  Christian 
people,  Christ  has  been  more  or  less  present 
from  their  earliest  lives.  He  has  incorporated 
them  into  the  baptismal  fellowship,  dealt  with 
them  by  the  influences  of  His  Holy  Spirit, 
stirred  them  with  gladness,  searched  them 


DISCIPLINE. 


139 


with  sorrow.  His  Name  has  been  the  pre- 
cious birthright  of  their  Christian  heritage ; 
and  His  life  the  sublime  ideal  of  a matchless 
goodness  elevating  their  daily  existence,  even 
in  its  homeliest  features,  with  a tender  and 
dignified  beauty.  His  words  have  become 
part  of  their  mental  wealth.  When  they  have 
wanted  Him  He  has  ever  been  at  hand  to 
soothe  and  heal.  When  they  have  not  wanted 
Him  He  has  patiently  waited  until  they  call 
on  Him,  and  the  question  is,  what  are  they 
really  the  better  for  this  divine  nearness  and 
love  ? 

This  knowledge  of  Christ  must  iYhat  our 
be  a separate  and  individual  knowledge  of 
knowledge.  Each  must  know  Christ  must 
Him  for  himself  in  the  separate  region  of  his 
own  spirit.  It  must  be  a knowledge  of  ex- 
perience, not  of  what  others  have  learnt  and 
written,  but  of  what  we  have  known  and 
tasted  ; not  of  what  others  have  had  from  Him 
and  enjoyed  in  Him,  but  as  the  Samaritans 
said,  “Now  we  believe  not  because  of  Thy 
saying,  for  we  have  heard  Him  ourselves  ” 
[John  iv.  42].  Especially  it  must  be  a knowledge 
that  helps  us  to  be  like  Him . Mere  theology 


140 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


will  not  make  us  like  Him.  The  chief  priests 
of  His  day  were  the  foremost  theologians  of 
their  time,  and  carefully  sent  the  wise  men  to 
Bethlehem  to  find  the  King  of  the  Jews.  Yet 
their  knowing  the  text  of  inspired  prophecy 
did  not  help  them  spiritually  to  interpret  it. 
In  the  end  they  slew  Him,  because  whether 
the  prophets  witnessed  to  Him  or  not,  He  was 
not  the  King  for  them.  Theology  can  indeed 
touch  His  raiment,  and  describe  it.  It  cannot 
reach  His  life.  Truly  to  know  Him  is  to  know 
Him  as  Saviour,  Master,  and  friend.  Saviour, 
because  we  have  suffered  Him  to  have  all  His 
blessed  way  with  us;  and  so  He  has  saved  us 
from  our  sins,  and  told  us  so,  and  made  us 
free.  Master,  in  appointing  to  us  our  proper 
place  in  this  vast  creation,  with  our  own  task, 
and  grace,  and  gift,  and  wages,  and  crown. 
Friend,  in  all  the  love  that  can  glow  in  the 
nature  of  God  and  the  heart  of  Man.  Man 
with  us,  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  in- 
firmities ; God  in  us,  our  righteousness,  and 
strength,  and  shield. 

Are  there  any  who  feel  that  through  God's 
great  mercy  they  do  know  something  of  Him, 
though  nothing  yet  as  they  ought  to  know? 


DISCIPLINE. 


141 

Sure  that  they  wish  to  know  more,  they  have 
been  wishing  it  so  long,  and  with  such  scanty 
result  that  they  despair. 

Well,  there  are  several  ways  of  meeting  this 
difficulty.  It  is  quite  true  that  Christ  Him- 
self warned  the  Apostle,  “ I have  yet  many 
things  to  say  unto  you,  but  you  cannot  bear 
them  now”  [John xvi.  12].  Most  assuredly  we  are 
all  of  us  dull  scholars  at  best ; and  sometimes 
it  takes  years  to  master  but  one  law  in  God's 
spiritual  kingdom.  Truths  that  are  clear  to 
us  now,  were  in  thick  mist  ten  years  ago,  with 
hardly  the  outline  of  their  shape  visible. 
What  is  misty  to-day  may  suddenly  clear  to- 
morrow. We  cannot  learn  everything  at 
once ; and  the  mind  will  not  act  as  a ma- 
chine. It  has  its  caprices,  or  at  least  what 
look  to  be  so ; and  its  eccentric  ways  of  act- 
ing ; and  it  will  neither  be  forced  nor  hurried. 
Moreover,  it  is  not  the  only  factor  in  our  edu- 
cation. Time  is  a teacher;  also  circum- 
stances, sorrow.  It  is  also  the  case  that  the 
opportunity  and  capacity  for  knowing  Christ 
vary  in  the  individual,  yes,  and  with  the  same 
individual.  The  mind  has  its  fertile  moments 
and  its  sterile.  Some  years  have  their  oppor- 


142 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


tune  sowings  and  their  harvests  of  plenty. 
Then  there  is  a change:  and  to  the  barns 
filled  with  last  year's  wheat  the  hungry  soul 
must  go.  None  of  these  things,  however, 
need  make  us  afraid.  God,  our  Father,  who 
means  us  to  know  Him , and  takes  His  time 
about  it,  being  the  wisest  as  well  as  the  kind- 
est of  teachers ; having  also  all  Eternity  in 
front  wherein  to  teach  us,  takes  note  of  all 
these  things,  and  will  not  suffer  them  to  hurt 
us,  will  only  judge  us  by  what  we  haVe  been 
able  to  learn.  The  Psalmist  gives  us  the  key, 
“ Delight  thyself  also  in  the  Lord  ” lps.  xxxvii.  4]. 
Oh,  with  what  a circumspect  love  we  adore 
God  ! In  an  earlier  chapter  (p.  70)  I have 
spoken  about  the  power  of  loving  Christ  as  a 
special  grace  to  be  asked  of  God.  Let  me 
here  dwell  on  that  one  aspect  of  it  which  af- 
fects our  knowledge  of  Him  as  the  revelation 
of  the  Father.  For  we  come  to  know  Him 
exactly  as  we  come  to  know  each  other  by 
the  best  and  quickest  and  deepest  way  of 
love.  You  never  get  thoroughly  to  under- 
stand an  earthly  friend  till  you  really  love 
him.  Until  you  love  God,  and  in  measure  as 
you  love  Him,  will  He  be  an  abstract  and  aw- 


DISCIPLINE. 


143 


ful  idea,  or  a system  of  unattainable  perfec- 
tion, or  a far-off  righteousness,  or  an  inflexible 
Fate  — or  a Father  who  pities,  blesses,  and 
saves. 

When  you  begin  really  to  love  Him,  the 
thick  cold  mists  will  slowly  roll  away,  and  the 
gulf  between  heaven  and  earth  be  bridged 
over.  Problems  will  remain,  but  we  shall  feel 
there  is  a key  to  them  somewhere.  Duty 
will  sometimes  fatigue,  and  grief  sadden  us, 
and  results  disappoint,  and  faults  humble. 
Yet,  as  the  heart  becomes  enlarged,  will  God's 
service  become  perfect  freedom  ; duty  will  be 
seen  to  be  seed,  the  gleaning  perhaps  far 
hence,  when  the  reapers  and  the  sowers  re- 
joice together  before  the  Lord  of  the  harvest. 

It  cannot  always  be  summer-time  in  the 
soul,  but  in  the  darkest,  gloomiest  days  of  its 
winter,  we  shall  always  remember  the  clear 
glow  of  the  bright  sunlight  and  the  wealth  of 
God's  smiles  on  the  earth.  These  things  will 
still  be  ours,  and  they  are  coming  again. 
Nay,  as  if  to  prepare  us  for  what  may  be 
coming — (was  the  Transfiguration,  as  some 
tell  us,  a Divine  preparation  not  only  for  the 
Apostles,  but  for  Jesus  Himself  before  the 


144 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


great  travail  came  ?) — there  are  moments,  few 
and  far  between  no  doubt,  in  the  religious 
consciousness  of  the  devout  Christian,  when 
he  sees  Christ  so  vividly,  and  understands 
Him  so  intimately,  and  loves  Him  with  so  in- 
tense a love,  that  it  seems  caught  from  the 
saints  in  light ; when  so  real,  so  near,  is  the 
felt  tenderness  of  the  Lord,  that  for  the  sake 
of  that  love,  and  in  the  mighty  strength  of  it, 
he  feels  (God  helping  him)  he  could  almost 
without  an  effort  strip  himself  of  every 
earthly  delight ; and  go  empty  and  barefoot, 
with  ashes  on  his  head,  but  gladness  in  his 
heart,  until  his  home  is  in  sight,  and  his  Lord 
beckons  him  to  His  feet.  But  all  this  indi- 
cates, contains,  and  sets  forth  a secret  and 
perhaps  long  discipline  of  the  soul,  without 
which  such  an  experience  of  the  possibilities 
of  the  love  of  Christ  could  be  neither  possible 
nor  safe. 

So  we  come  back  to  the  sen- 

f /I'M 

tence  with  which  we  began,  and 
from  which,  let  us  hope,  we  have  not  too  far 
wandered,  “ Show  me  wherefore  Thou  con- 
tendest  with  me.” 

Christian  reader,  while  much  is  to  be  said 


DISCIPLINE 


145 


about  God's  general  administration  of  His 
discipline,  the  precise  object  of  it  must  vary 
with  each  individual,  and  it  is  a shallow,  even 
a cruel  rashness  that  presumes  to  explain  all 
by  one.  Sometimes,  no  doubt,  as  when  Da- 
vid's child  died,  it  is  the  visitation  of  a special 
sin.  Yet  not  always.  To  sum  up,  it  may  be 
for  a truth  that  He  would  teach — or  a gift 
that  He  would  impart — or  a duty  which  He 
would  impose  — or  a dignity  for  which  He 
would  prepare.  Also,  let  us  not  forget  per- 
haps the  most  sublime  of  all.  Parents  come 
to  know  it,  and  not  only  parents.  It  was  the 
lesson  of  Jesus  and  the  wisdom  of  God. 
“ There  is  one  condition  under  Mystery  of 
which  all  know  that  pain  is  not  $atn- 
truly  an  evil,  but  a good.  This  is  when  pain 
is  willingly  borne  for  another’s  sake." 

It  is  our  business,  however,  to  ask  Him,  and 
He  is  sure  to  tell  us,  though  often  in  an  un- 
looked-for way.  All  God's  controversies  with 
man  have  two  main  ends : one  in  relation  to 
others,  the  other  in  relation  to  ourselves ; 
both,  of  course,  converging  in  Him.  To 
show,  us  “that  the  best  and  greatest  gilt  He 
can  give  us  is  the  privilege  He  gave  His  Son, 


io 


1 46  the  gospel  of  christ. 

to  be  used  and  sacrificed  for  the  best  and 
greatest  end.”  Also,  so  to  wean  and  purge 
and  empty  us  of  self  and  visible  things,  that 
our  capacity  may  be  deepened  for  the  posses- 
sion and  fruition  of  Himself. 

Therefore,  O disciple  of  Christ,  whatever 
happens  to  thee — God  far  away,  life  clouded 
or  ebbing,  friends  misjudging  thee,  poisoned 
thoughts  harassing  thee,  bodily  weakness  rob- 
bing life  of  its  dignity,  quickly  passing  years 
stealing  away  one  by  one  the  dear  compan- 
ions of  thy  youth  and  prime,  doubts  that  chill, 
thoughts  that  defile,  recollections  that  sadden, 
losses  that  depress,  privileges  thou  canst  no 
longer  enjoy,  duties  thou  canst  but  imper- 
fectly perform — only  let  two  thoughts  fill  thy 
heart  and  steady  thy  mind’s  tumult,  and  all 
shall  be  well. 

As  to  the  Church  and  world  outside,  now  is 
the  trial  of  thy  faith  that  shall  prove  if  faith  is 
real  and  God  is  true.  Let  men  see  that  thou 
hast  a treasure  in  Heaven  which  awaits  thee, 
and  a power  in  faith  which  sustains  thee,  and 
a joy  in  prayer  which  exhilarates  thee,  and  a 
tight  grip  of  God  which  keeps  thy  chin  high 
above  the  deepening  waters,  and  gives  thee 


DISCIPLINE. 


H7 

the  peace  which  they  envy  and  may  learn 
from  thee  how  to  attain. 

As  for  thine  own  soul,  cleave  steadfastly  to 
God.  He  hath  never  forsaken  thee  yet,  and 
He  is  not  likely  to  forsake  thee  at  the  mo- 
ment when  thou  most  needest  Him.  Never 
was  a human  soul  nearer  a sorrowful  ship- 
wreck than  Job  was. 

But  a strong  hand  pulled  him  out  of  the 
deep  waters,  and  set  him  on  a rock  and  or- 
dered his  goings.  What  God  did  for  him  He 
will  do  for  thee.  He  is  not  changed  in  His 
character,  nor  thou  in  thy  necessity.  Only 
for  Job's  faith  there  must  be  Job's  discipline, 
and  for  Job's  victory  there  must  be  Job's 
prayer. 


V. 


SACRIFICE. 


“WHO  GAVE  HIMSELF  FOR  US.” 


14  Whatever  else  viay  pass  or  change,  of  this  we  may 
be  sure , that  till  God  cease  to  love  us,  we  shall 
stand  face  to  face  with  sacrifice 


HE  Gospel  is  Christ’s  revelation  of 
His  Father’s  purpose  for  men.  It  is 
doctrine,  because  it  gives  us  the  orig- 
inal and  essential  account  of  God  in  His  Per- 
sonal relation  to  us.  It  is  history,  because  it 
describes  to  us  from  the  beginning  how  God 
has  created,  ruled,  and  redeemed  us  by  His 
Son.  It  is  law — though,  indeed,  the  perfect 
law  of  liberty  — because  it  authoritatively 
presses  His  claims  on  our  obedience  and 
gratitude.  Let  it  be  also  observed  that  one 
part  of  this  Gospel  is  as  much  good  news  as 
(148) 


SACRIFICE. 


I49 

another.  What  can  be  blesseder  for  us  than 
the  lofty  and  inspiring  ideas  that  convey  to 
my  intelligence  the  true  conception  of  my 
Maker?  What  more  consoling  or  more  ex- 
emplary than  the  story  of  that  unique  life, 
which  is  at  once  the  type  and  ideal  of  Love 
exhausting  itself  in  sacrifice  ? What  more 
elevating  or  heart -stirring  than  the  claim 
which  God  makes  on  our  spiritual  being  when 
approaching  us  in  Christ  ? “ Children,  I love 

you.  Jesus  Christ,  my  Son,  is  the  evidence 
and  measure  of  it.  Come  back  to  me,  and 
love  me,  and  show  your  love  by  obedience.,, 

Now,  this  Gospel  will  be  best  understood, 
through  our  first  contemplating  its  completest 
manifestation  in  the  story  of  the  Passion  ; 
then,  by  our  earnestly  and  honestly  ponder- 
ing how  every  regenerate  soul  is  to  embrace, 
assimilate,  and  reproduce  the  central  idea  of 
the  Cross,  in  the  hidden  but  crucified  life  of 
self-denial.  “ The  utmost  we  now  seem  to 
attain  is  to  love  Him  gratefully  for  rescuing 
us  from  all  need  of  agony,  so  that  we  may 
pass  from  easy  life  here  to  easier  life  hereafter. 
When  shall  we  begin  to  see  that  thus  we  pro- 
nounce our  own  sentence  of  apartness  from 


I JO  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 

Him  ; th?t  His  ideal  of  blessedness  is  sacrifice 
absolute? 

“ Behold  the  man  ” [John  xix.  5],  said  Pilate  to 
the  multitude,  in  a moment  of  vacillating  pity. 
“ Behold  the  man,”  whispers  the  Church,  that 
thou  mayest  comprehend  at  once  God’s  love 
and  thine  own  sin. 

Christ’s  sufferings,  if  pre-emi-  Christ's 
nently  the  sufferings  of  His  Pas-  sufferings. 
sion,  are  not,  of  course,  to  be  confined  to 
them.  In  a real  sense  His  whole  life,  though 
it  had  its  deep  under-currents  of  joy  in  doing 
the  will  and  revealing  the  name  of  His  Father, 
was,  nevertheless,  one  unbroken  trial.  The 
“ Man  of  Sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief” 
[isa.  iiii.3],  as  the  Evangelical  Prophet  calls  Him, 
in  enduring  the  “ contradiction  of  sinners 
against  Himself  ” [Heb.xii.3j,  suffered  daily.  Nor, 
again,  are  they  the  only  sufferings  that  have 
the  atoning  value.  Christ’s  work  must  not 
be  halved  like  that.  From  the  hour  of  His 
supernatural  conception  to  the  moment  of 
His  expiring  on  the  cross,  He  was  in  the  way 
of  making  reconciliation  for  sin,  and  bringing 
in  everlasting  righteousness. 


* “ Links  and  Clues. 


SA  ORIFICE. 


151 

But  in  view  of  the  fact  that  man’s  sin  and 
Satan’s  malice  had  their  awful  climax  on  the 
cross,  the  Divine  Love  made  perfect  in  the 
offering  of  His  innocent  life  may  not  inexactly 
be  said  to  have  had  its  final  consummation 
and  supreme  manifestation  there.  Three 
times  does  St.  Peter  allude  to  the  “ sufferings 
of  Christ  ” in  his  general  epistles,  as  if  abso- 
lutely possessed  with  their  one  meaning  and 
value.  Twice,  moreover,  does  he  remind  us 
that  He  suffered — “ the  just  for  the  unjust,” 
“ bearing  our  sins  in  His  own  body  on  the 
tree,”  that  “ we  being  dead  unto  sins  might 
live  unto  righteousness.” 

Christian  reader,  in  inviting  you  to  contem- 
plate these  sufferings,  a blessed,  yet  a hum- 
bling Gospel  for  us,  earnestly  let  us  ask  God 
to  help  us  to  remember  that  it  is  very  holy 
ground.  Any  great  sorrow  for  a heart  with 
but  a spark  of  humanity  in  it  is  a touching 
spectacle.  But  the  sorrow  of  an  innocent 
spirit  suffering  unjustly,  and  because  of  its 
innocence,  is  as  elevating  as  it  is  rare.  When 
it  is  also  the  sorrow  of  one  who  loves  us, 
and  suffers  because  he  loves  us,  and  in  order 
that  we  may  love  him,  there  is  no  moral  force 


152 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


like  it.  But  to  behold  the  Incarnate  Son  of 
God  in  pain,  suffering  on  behalf  of  His  sinful 
creatures,  that  thereby  they  may  become  recon- 
ciled to  His  Father,  is  one  of  those  mysteries 
which  only  the  Word  of  God  can  reveal  and 
the  power  of  God  apply. 

Two  thoughts  on  the  subject  may  suffice 
us  for  the  present.  May  the  “ Spirit  of 
Christ  ” hallow  them  to  our  inmost  souls. 


HE  Eastern  Church,  as  The  nature  of 
some  of  us  will  remem-  His  sufferings. 
her,  distinguishes  the  Lord's  sufferings  as 
known  and  unknown.  It  may  be  more  def- 
initely edifying  for  us  if  we  consider  them  as 
bodily  and  spiritual.  As  to  His  bodily  suffer- 
ings, those  who  feel  it  helpful  to  do  so  can 
study  for  themselves  the  most  graphic  ac- 
count of  the  bodily  woe  of  the  Saviour  that 
the  pen  of  a scholar,  the  imagination  of  a 
poet,  and  the  sympathy  of  a disciple  has  pro- 
duced in  our  own  time  in  Farrar's  “ Life  of 
Christ."  We  may  add  that  what  Holy  Script- 
ure is  so  careful  to  indicate,  both  in  the  his- 
torical narratives  of  the  evangelist  and  in  the 
inspired  anticipations  of  the  prophets,  must 


SACRIFICE. 


153 

have  been  deliberately  intended  for  the  edifi- 
cation of  the  Church. 

Now,  in  His  bodily  suffering,  Bodily 
there  were  at  least  these  three  sufferings. 
elements:  shame,  exhaustion,  and  thirst  — 
each  and  all  of  them  as  actual  to  Him  as 
they  could  be  to  us  ; nay,  intensified,  we  may 
conjecture,  by  that  remarkable  sensitiveness 
to  pain,  which  almost  invariably  accompanies 
a perfect  and  finely  - strung  organization. 
u They  pierced  my  hands  and  my  feet  ” 
tPs.xxh.  16].  This  evidently  indicates  the  nailing 
of  His  blessed  feet  to  the  cross.  “ The  song 
of  the  drunkards  ” [Ps.ixix.  123  is  David’s  own 
sentence.  Here  is  the  intimation  of  the  pro- 
found shame  and  abasement  which  coarse  in- 
sults inevitably  cause  to  pure  and  noble  souls, 
and  which  to  Him,  in  what  an  inspired  writer 
has  called  the  “ shame  ” [Heb.xii.23,  apparently, 
of  the  infamous  cross,  must  have  been  a woe 
indeed.  “ They  look  and  stare  upon  me  ” 
[Ps.xxii.17]  (a  sentence  from  a Messianic  psalm) 
is  another  sad  moan  from  the  heart  that  was 
breaking  when  the  priests  wagged  their  heads 
and  the  crowd  spat  their  scorn.  There  was 
the  awful  exhaustion  and  the  physical  depres- 


154 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


sion  accompanying  it,  which  made  Him  reel 
and  faint  under  the  load  of  the  cross  before 
He  was  fastened  to  it,  which  afterwards  found 
its  mournful  expression,  once  more  in  the 
words  of  the  Psalmist,  “ Save  me,  O God, 
for  the  waters  are  come  in  unto  my  soul  ” 
tps.ixix.9].  Once  more,  there  was  the  thirst, 
the  intolerable  thirst  that  ever  accompanied 
crucifixion,  made  a pretext  for  tantalizing  in- 
sult. “ They  gave  me  gall  also  for  my  meat, 
and  in  my  thirst  they  gave  me  vinegar  to 

drink”  [Ps.ixix.21] 

The  spiritual  But  what  were  His  spiritual 

suffering.  sufferings?  The  suffering  of  con- 
flict and  of  solitariness,  an  unspeakable  loath- 
ing and  dismay  and  agony  at  sin,  brought 
closer  to  Him,  laid  more  heavily  on  Him 
than  ever  an  intense  jealousy  for  the  honour 
of  God  and  sorrow  for  the  guiltiness  of  man. 
You  remember  the  conflict  in  the  Garden  be- 
tween the  human  will,  that  just  because  of 
its  humanness  shrank  instinctively  and  inevi- 
tably from  the  pain  and  burden  in  front ; and 
the  Divine  will,  that  from  all  eternity  had 
foreseen  and  chosen  that  hour.  Well,  that 
conflict — which  had  its  first  travail-pang  when 


SACRIFICE. 


i5S 


the  Greeks  came  to  Him,  and  the  hour  of 
His  Passion  was  striking — followed  Him  to 
His  cross,  and  agonized  in  Him.  there. 

Christian  reader,  have  you  ever  known  what 
it  is  to  be  in  moral  and  spiritual  conflict,  and 
to  be  well-nigh  torn  asunder  by  it?  If  not, 
you  have  yet  to  come  of  age  in  your  spiritual 
manhood.  If  you  have,  then  you  can  form  a 
faint  notion  of  what  that  struggle  must  have 
been  to  Christ.  There  was  His  solitariness, 
which,  all  His  life  through,  in  the  beautiful 
sociableness  of  His  perfect  Humanity,  He 
ever  instinctively  avoided,  which,  even  in  the 
agony  of  the  Garden,  He  tried  to  anticipate, 
and  sorrowfully  failed  to  prevent.  It  coldly 
settled  on  Him  as  He  was  dying,  in  all  its 
chilly,  gloomy  darkness  : men  insulting,  dis- 
ciples fleeing,  devils  tempting,  His  Father 
hidden.  A “ desire  of  the  life  that  is  in 
man's  favour"  belonged  to  Christ,  as  a feat- 
ure of  His  true  Humanity,  and  that  He  suf- 
fered through  missing  it,  seems  plain  from 
the  words,  “ Reproach  hath  broken  my  heart" 
[Ps.  lxix.  20].  Oh!  I pray  you  observe  that  it  is 
not  greatness,  but  littleness,  that  can  easily 
dispense  with  human  love,  and  prefers  to  suf- 


156  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

fer  alone.  The  tenderest  and  noblest  souls 
most  desire  sympathy,  most  keenly  feel  the 
lack  of  it  when  it  is  denied  them.  The 
scourge,  the  nails,  the  thirst  — these  passed 
like  fleeting  clouds  over  a great  mountain’s 
brow ; but  to  be  left  alone,  utterly  alone, 
without  voice  from  earth  or  smile  from  Heav- 
en, brought  from  Him  that  sharp  cry  of  unut- 
terable desolateness  that  still  rings  in  the  con- 
science of  the  world. 

Then  there  was  a righteous  jealousy  for  the 
honour  and  faithfulness  of  His  Father,  which 
must  have  rankled  as  a thorn  in  His  tender 
soul.  “He  trusted  in  God;  let  Him  deliver 
Him  now  if  He  will  have  Him,  for  He  said,  I 
am  the  Son  of  God”  [Matt,  xxvii.  43].  Well  did 
the  Lord  know  that  His  trust  had  not  been 
misplaced;  nay,  that  never  had  His  Father 
regarded  Him  with  a deeper  and  vaster  love 
than  at  the  moment  when  He  was  willingly 
suffering  for  the  revelation  of  His  Name  and 
Holiness;  that,  as  He  had  not  wronged  God, 
God  had  not  wronged  Him,  and  presently  all 
would  be  made  plain.  Nevertheless,  until  all 
was  made  plain,  there  was  a cloud  of  mystery 
hanging  over  the  character  of  God,  and  His 


SACRIFICE. 


157 


eternal  righteousness  was  at  stake  before  the 
universe.  The  Son  of  God  was  suffering  for 
the  glory  of  God  ; and,  when  sinners  threw  at 
Him  that  He  was  suffering  because  He  was 
guilty,  the  Father  held  His  peace. 

But  doubtless  the  deepest  and  most  awful 
anguish  of  all — an  anguish  which  it  is  utterly 
impossible  for  us  to  conceive,  fathom,  or  de- 
scribe, which,  nevertheless,  we  may  reverently 
approach  and  contemplate  — is  that  which 
came  to  Him  through  the  making  fully  plain 
to  His  spotless  soul  of  the  awful  sinfulness  of 
sin,  with  the  unspeakable  loathing  and  horror 
caused  to  Him  thereby.  The  sin  of  the  race 
— in  all  its  extremest  possibilities,  in  all  its 
most  frightful  developments,  culminated  in 
the  crime  of  the  Cross.  There  and  then  the 
holy  soul  of  Jesus  met  it,  faced  it,  looked 
down  into  its  loathsome  depths,  felt  its  pol- 
luted breath  on  His  cheek,  tasted  to  the 
dregs  its  unutterable  shame  and  bitterness, 
bowed  down  before  it,  as  its  crushing  burden 
weighed  upon  His  spirit.  To  His  Father  He 
said,  “ Amen,  O Lord,  to  Thy  inviolable  right- 
eousness, which  can  by  no  means  clear  the 
guilty.”  Over  man — cursing,  gambling,  mock- 


158  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

ing,  staring  under  the  Cross — He  yearned 
with  infinite  love  and  immense  pity  for  his 
ruin  and  death.  For  was  not  He  his  head 
and  kinsman,  sharer  of  his  nature,  and  actual 
partaker  of  his  life,  hating  the  sin  and  yet  lov- 
ing the  sinner,  bent  on  vindicating  God,  born 
for  redeeming  man?  He  was  as  the  saint  of 
whom  it  was  written,  “ Rivers  of  waters  run 
down  my  cheeks  because  they  keep  not  Thy 
law  ” [Ps.cxix.36].  Also  like  a parent  of  old,  only 
with  a grief  that  embraced  the  race,  and  with 
a conscience  that  confessed  no  share  in  it,  and 
in  a prayer  instantly  fulfilling  itself  in  a far 
loftier  sacrifice,  His  solemn  death- cry  went  up 
to  Heaven ; not  as  David’s,  in  his  self-accus- 
ing anguish,  “Would  to  God  that  I had  died 
for  thee!”  [i  sam.  xvin.  33].  He  had  died  ; but  in 
the  calmness  of  a completed  purpose  and  an 
assured  reward,  “ It  is  finished  ” [John  xix.  303. 

The  cause  of  Here,  coming  to  look  into  the 

His  sufferings.  cause  Gf  His  sufferings,  and  to 

learn  why  His  anguish  was  so  great  (oh,  it  is 
holy  ground  !),  let  us  at  once  admit  that,  ex- 
cept on  one  hypothesis,  it  is  a hopeless  prob- 
lem. Bodily  pain,  longer  and  even  keener 
than  His,  thousands  of  human  sufferers,  and 


SACRIFICE. 


159 

for  causes  much  less  sublime,  have  endured 
with  a triumphant  calmness.  Death,  so  far 
from  being  to  every  man  the  sad  ghost  of  an 
intolerable  farewell,  has  often  been  a welcome 
guest,  sometimes  an  invited  deliverer.  Pagan 
history  is  full  of  acts  of  heroic  sacrifice,  of 
lives  readily  surrendered  for  love  of  home 
and  country,  of  martyrdom  grandly  endured 
as  a true  reward  for  the  confession  of  moral 
truth.  Whence,  then,  is  it  that  our  Pattern 
and  Deliverer  faints  and  reels  under  a burden 
which  others  have  borne  with  a kind  of  sub- 
lime gladness ; that,  when  the  hour  had  come 
for  the  accomplishment  of  a redemption  con- 
ceived in  a past  eternity,  even  the  thought 
should  have  occurred  to  Him  that  the  load 
was  too  heavy  to  be  borne.  The  key  to  the 
difficulty,  so  far  as  there  is  a key  to  it,  is  to  be 
found  partly  in  the  nature  of  His  purpose, 
partly  in  the  mystery  of  His  person. 

With  all  variety  of  expression,  yet  each  ex- 
pression a distinct,  though  consistent  aspect 
of  one  harmonious  and  profound  verity,  the 
Bible  opens  to  us  the  purpose  of  His  sorrow. 
It  was  to  “ redeem  us  from  all  iniquity  ” by 
“the  blood  of  His  Cross  ” [Titus ii.u]  to  “make 


l6o  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 

peace”  ccoi.  i.  20].  He  was  also  declared  by  the 
Baptist  to  be  “ the  Lamb  of  God  which  tak- 
eth  away  the  sins  of  the  world  ” [John i.  29].  Of 
this  also  St.  Paul  wrote,  that  He  was  “ made 
sin  for  us  that  we  might  be  made  the  right- 
eousness of  God  in  Him  ” [2Cor.  v.  21];  all  which 
statement  (and  it  is  needless  to  multiply  these 
statements),  containing  as  they  do  what  is 
commonly  understood  as  the  doctrine  of  the 
Atonement,  marrow  and  essence  of  the  Gos- 
pel, practically  mean  and  declare  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  our  Head  and  Repre- 
sentative, did,  in  our  stead  and  place,  for  us 
with  God  fully  recognize  and  satisfy  the  Di- 
vine Righteousness,  and  made  homage  to  the 
violated  dignity  of  His  immutable  and  eternal 
law;  and  took  upon  Himself  and  endured,  in 
all  their  unspeakable  meaning,  our  sins ; con- 
fessing (not,  indeed,  as  one  who  had  actually 
sinned  them,  but  as  absolutely  identified  with 
the  race  which  had  sinned)  their  guiltiness  be-J 
fore  His  Father;  mourning  over  them  with 
all  the  holy  and  profound  sadness  which  a 
sinless  and  true  soul  could  possibly  feel  for 
those  belonging  to  it  and  unspeakably  dear. 
This  being  so,  can  you  wonder  that,  when 


SACRIFICE. 


161 


“ the  iniquity  of  us  all,”  in  the  prophet’s  sol- 
emn language,  was  actually  “laid  upon  Him  ” 
[isaiah  mi.  6],  He  reeled  and  shuddered,  as  if 
some  deadly  blow  had  been  aimed  at  His 
heart?  Had  His  sorrow  been  only  that  of  a 
martyr,  we  might  have  expected  a glad  Jubi- 
late that  He  was  permitted  to  suffer.  The 
Sin-bearer,  with  the  world’s  sin  on  His  inno- 
cent spirit,  could  not  but  mourn  and  suffer 
till  the  cup  was  exhausted  and  the  expiation 
complete. 

UT  the  greatness  of  His  The  mystery  of 
suffering  has  yet  more  His  Person. 
light  thrown  on  it  by  contemplating  the  mys- 
tery of  His  Person.  He  was  God  and  man  in 
one  Person.  In  Him  the  Divine  and  human 
natures,  in  their  absolute  and  separate  perfec- 
tion, were  united  forevermore.  Thus  it  was 
that,  so  far  as  we  can  presume  to  put  it  into 
words,  two  currents  of  feeling  flowed  through 
His  spirit  and  two  centres  of  sympathy 
claimed  and  engrossed  His  personal  com 
sciousness.  God  He  was  all  for  and  with 
God.  Man  He  was  all  for  and  ydth  man. 
God  for  man,  and  yet,  when  He  sinned, 


l62  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST 

against  his  sin  ; man,  made  by  God,  and  re- 
sponsible to  Him,  and  belonging  to  Him,  and 
rejoicing  in  Him,  yet,  in  virtue  of  His  man- 
hood, knitted  to  a race  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins.  Carefully  consider  how  this  twofold  nat- 
ure of  His  may  have  compelled  and  also  in- 
tensified His  conflict.  As  God,  whatever 
God’s  righteousness  demanded,  He  too  de- 
manded. Whatever  stirred  God’s  holy  dis- 
pleasure, stirred  His  displeasure.  God’s  feel- 
ing about  sin  was  also  His  feeling  about  it. 
The  utter  impossibility  for  God,  as  a moral 
governor,  to  connive  at  sin  as  if  it  did  not 
matter,  or  to  treat  sinners  as  if  they  had  not 
really  grieved  Him,  for  Him  was  an  impossi- 
bility too.  Therefore,  when  the  Lord  “ laid 
on  Him  the  iniquity  of  us  all,”  and  “ bruised 
Him”  for  them  (whatever  the  Prophet’s  awful 
expression  may  exactly  mean),  who  was  to  say 
No  to  that  expression  of  His  Father’s  right- 
eousness? With  all  His  heart  and  strength 
His  parched  lips  moaned  out  a true  Amen  to 
each  throb  of  His  passion;  all  through  it  He 
was  on  His  Holy  Father’s  side,  in  love  testify- 
ing for  righteousness.  Yet  He  was  on  man’s 
side  too,  not  through  indifference  to  his  sin, 


SACRIFICE. 


163 

but  in  spite  of  it ; not  that  sin  was  not  sinful, 
but  because  its  misery  was  so  great.  As  His 
infinite  love  to  His  Father  and  His  partaking 
of  the  Divine  nature  made  Him  accept  in 
meek  submission  all  that  was  involved  in  a 
world’s  sin-bearing,  so  His  infinite  love  to  men 
not  only  made  Him  long  to  deliver  them,  but 
just  because  He  so  tenderly  loved  them,  His 
pain  at  their  sin  was  so  great. 

Some  of  you  will  understand  this  by  your- 
selves, for  it  is  a law  of  our  nature.  The 
faults  and  sins  of  strangers  take  compara- 
tively little  hold  of  us,  not  indeed  half  the 
hold  they  ought.  But  when  a child  or  a 
friend  sins,  in  exact  proportion  to  our  love 
will  ever  be  our  sorrow.  Nay,  in  a sort  of 
way  we  almost  feel  to  have  done  the  sin 
ourselves,  when  it  comes  close  home  to  us, 
through  our  affinity  with  the  sinner.  Thus 
(to  repeat  the  idea)  it  was  Christ’s  sympathy 
with  His  righteous  Father  on  the  one  hand, 
and  His  tender  love  to  His  brother  man  on 
the  other,  that,  through  the  intenseness  of  the 
actings  of  the  twofold  nature,  made  His  bur- 
den so  heavy  and  His  anguish  so  great.  As 
God  hates  sin,  He  hated  it.  As  God  would 


164  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

prevent  sin,  and  in  His  very  love  must  recog- 
nize and  condemn  it,  so  would  He  recognize, 
prevent,  and  condemn  it  too. 

But  as  man  can  suffer  and  weep  so  He 
suffered  and  wept,  until  the  stillness  came, 
when  the  conflict  was  over  and  the  propitia- 
tion complete.  Then  He  fell  asleep,  and  it 
was  finished. 

What  is  that  Reader,  let  me  ask  you  what 

Cross  to  us  ? moral  response  does  your  inward 
conscience  make  to  that  great  suffering  of 
Christ?  He  gave  Himself  for  you.  Consider 
what  that  means.  It  is  not  likely  that  He 
should  have  done  so,  had  there  not  been  a 
cause.  What  the  cause  was,  in  the  only  ex- 
planation that  will  hold  good  for  a moment, 
is  the  world's  sin.  But  the  world  means  you 
and  me.  Did  Christ  really  suffer  for  us?  To 
say  No,  shuts  us  out  from  hope  and  life,  for, 
so  far  as  we  know , there  is  no  hope,  no  life  for 
us,  but  through  that  death  upon  the  cross  and 
the  Resurrection  out  of  it  afterwards.  To 
say  Yes,  instantly  involves  the  inquiry,  to 
what  extent  we  permit  it  to  affect  us,  either 
in  repentance  for  the  sin  which  He  bore  or 
in  gratitude  to  Him  for  having  consented  to 


SACRIFICE. 


165 

bear  it  ? Oh,  what  is  this  Cross  to  us,  who 
must  one  day  look  on  Him  whom  we  have 
pierced  ? Have  we  taken  our  sins  to  it,  and 
left  them  there?  Have  we  sought  peace 
under  its  shadow,  got  it,  and  kept  it?  Is  that 
sorrow  made  our  sorrow,  because  we  spiritu- 
ally understand  it  and  personally  assent  to  it, 
using  it  to  purge  our  conscience  and  trans- 
form our  life?  In  a word,  have  we  accepted 
from  Him  this  redemption,  and  given  Him 
in  exchange  our  hearts?  For,  in  a most 
real  sense,  He  still  suffers,  though  in  glory, 
through  the  wounds  wherewith  sinners  daily 
wound  Him.  Every  sin  of  man  has  in  it  a 
tendency  to  send  Him  to  a second  cross ; and 
to  neglect  or  despise  this  salvation  is  to  repeat 
the  shout  of  the  multitude,  “ Not  this  man, 
but  Barabbas.” 

As  for  those  that  stand  by  His  cross,  and 
see  Him  die,  and  confess  that  He  died  for 
them,  and  do  not  care  for  it,  shall  I tell  you 
the  sentence  that  will  ring  in  their  hearts 
through  the  coming  time  ? “ Suffered  first 

under  Pontius  Pilate,  crucified  again  by  me.” 

So,  when  we  approach  His  Cross,  let  all 
who  need  Him  and  love  Him  try  to  be  in 


1 66  the  gospel  of  christ . 

sympathy  with  His  sorrow  and  in  fellowship 
with  His  death.  The  contemplation  of  the 
Cross  should  be  in  a most  real  way  a blessed 
means  of  grace. 

It  is  what  St.  Paul,  quite  at  the  close  of  his 
life,  felt  he  had  far  more  fully  to  learn ; and 
it  is  the  only  road  that  can  lead  us  on  to  the 
power  of  His  Resurrection. 

Jesus  suffering  for  me — let  it  be  translated 
for  each  of  us  into  our  suffering  with  Jesus, 
in  the  taking  of  His  yoke,  and  in  the  appre- 
hension of  His  sacrifice.  Then  all  of  us,  each 
in  our  own  measure,  shall  learn  from  His  Cross 
how  to  welcome  our  own,  and  meekly  carry  it 
after  Him.  Then  the  Cross  shall  become  not 
only  peace  and  light,  but  strength  and  food. 
For  there,  more  than  anywhere  else,  can  He 
consent  to  fulfil  His  word  to  us,  “ He  that 
eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood  dwell- 
eth  in  me,  and  I in  him  ” [John  vi.  56]. 

This,  then,  is  the  first  half  of  the  Gospel — 
what  Christ  has  done  and  suffered  for  me. 
Let  us  now  look  at  the  other  half,  what  we 
are  to  do  and  to  suffer  for  Christ. 

For  the  love  of  the  Atonement  essentially 
contains  in  it  the  true  law  of  the  highest  life 


SACRIFICE . i6y 

of  man.  St.  Peter  bears  witness  to  this  when 
he  writes,  “ Who  suffered  for  us,  leaving  us  an 
example  that  we  should  follow  in  His  steps  ” 
[i  peter  ii.  2i].  Let  us  thankfully  learn  that  every 
act  of  humble  and  willing  sacrifice,  every 
taunt  or  jeer  meekly  borne  for  righteousness’ 
sake,  in  memory  of  Him,  “ Who  when  He 
suffered  threatened  not  ” [i  Peter  ii.  23),  every  sharp 
though  secret  grief  endured  with  cheerful 
courage,  the  postponing  of  personal  happiness 
to  public  good,  a young  and  buoyant  life  un- 
complainingly and  continuously  given  to  the 
monotonous  service  of  a morose  kinsman, 
hope  deferred  for  duty’s  sake  till  the  heart  is 
sick  with  waiting  and  the  bloom  of  life  passed, 
talents  buried  through  the  force  of  circum- 
stances till  it  is  too  late  to  use  them ; here  is 
the  practical  reproduction  and  continuation 
of  the  principle  of  the  Atonement  in  its  cen- 
tral idea  of  willing  sacrifice  ; in  these  we  share 
the  death  of  Christ,  “ always  bearing  about  in 
the  body  the  dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  that 
the  life  also  of  Jesus  maybe  made  manifest 
in  our  body”  [2Cor. iv.  103. 

In  other  words,  it  is  the  self-life  nailed  to  the 
Cross  of  Christ.  “ I am  crucified  with  Christ.” 


1 68  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

Two  points  in  the  exposition  of  this  sen- 
tence must  at  the  outset  be  claimed.  One 
that  here,  as  elsewhere,  the  Apostle  writes  of 
himself  as  the  typical  Christian  man  who,  in  his 
own  condition  of  privilege  and  conflict,  for- 
mally represents  the  family  of  God.  Thus  “ I ” 
means  “ we.”  The  other,  of  course,  springing 
out  of  it,  that  this  is  no  mere  Pauline  idea  of 
holiness,  which  one  caught  up  into  the  third 
Heaven  might  in  his  best  moments  look  up 
at,  and  try  to  live  by,  for  the  bulk  of  Chris- 
tians higher  than  the  stars;  but  that  most 
truly  it  touches  us  all,  in  the  fact  it  repre- 
sents, and  the  discipline  it  indicates,  and  the 

fellowship  it  ensures.  “I,”  the 
The  self -life.  ir  rr 

J y self-life,  the  ego  in  every  man, 
the  root  and  soil  of  all  possibilities  of  sin. 
“ Am  crucified  ” — the  lingering,  painful  death 
of  the  flesh,  the  Adam  nature,  ever  in  con- 
tention with,  yet  never  in  this  life  entirely 
expelled  by,  the  imparted  nature  of  God. 
“ With  Christ  ” — that  is,  in  absorbing  the  vir- 
tue of  His  atonement,  learning  the  fellowship 
of  His  sufferings,  and  practising  the  secret  of 
His  life. 

Now,  this  self-life,  in  the  unavoidableness 


SACRIFICE. 


169 

of  its  existence,  in  the  reasonableness  of  its 
liberty,  in  the  persuasiveness  of  its  influence, 
in  the  subtlety  of  its  fascination,  in  the  plau- 
sibleness of  its  excuses,  and  in  the  deadliness 
of  its  triumph,  is  inevitably  bound  up  with 
the  spiritual  history  of  every  man,  fitting  him 
more  closely  than  the  poisoned  garment  in 
the  Greek  fable,  and  as  an  angel  of  light 
whispering  its  flatteries  into  the  soul.  For, 
of  course,  it  has  plenty  to  say  for  itself.  If 
we  did  not  each  of  us  distinctly  recognize  our 
personality,  and  study  our  own  welfare,  society 
would  presently  fall  back  into  a barbarous 
communism,  in  which  savagery  would  feed  on 
helplessness,  and  the  law  of  general  develop- 
ment now  operating  through  individual  effort, 
in  ceasing  to  be  a practical  force,  would  para- 
lyze the  onward  movement  of  the  world. 
Moreover,  who  shall  say  that  He  who  has 
made  this  earth  so  fair,  and  man  His  highest 
creature  on  it  still  capable  of  so  much  pure 
felicity,  really  frowns  on  us  when  we  grate- 
fully drink  the  odour  of  the  flowers  and  bathe 
our  hands  in  the  sparkling  sunlight  ? Is  He 
likely  so  to  contradict  His  own  creative  wis- 
dom as  to  justify  the  cynicism  that  happiness 


170 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST 


is  the  fountain  of  sin  ? Nature’s  analogies, 
at  any  rate,  point  quite  the  other  way.  Yet, 
making  the  most  of  this  plea,  and  careful  to 
avoid,  with  a large  and  charitable  judgment, 
any  sour  forbidding  of  sweet  human  joy,  we 
cannot  help  seeing  that  the  ways  of  God,  and 
the  tale  of  the  accumulating  ages,  and  the 
sombre  experience,  of  a well-examined  heart, 
all  say — “You  are  free;  be  free.  But  take 
care.  He  that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it.” 
For,  indeed,  out  of  this  very  self-life  among 
the  bowers  of  Paradise  came  that  “ insignifi- 
cant ” sin  that  corrupted  the  race.  From  that 
same  self-life,  whether  in  the  ultimate  develop- 
ment of  crimes  that  shock  the  conscience  of 
humanity,  or  in  the  stealthy  habit  of  a soft 
self-pleasing  that  first  enervates,  and  presently 
benumbs  us,  springs  that  nest  of  reptile  sins, 
which,  growing  and  feeding  in  the  dark,  sud- 
denly raise  their  hissing  crests  to  startle  and 
shock  us,  compelling  from  Him,  whose  first 
desire  is  to  make  us  partakers  of  His  Holiness, 
the  searching  discipline  of  His  love. 

In  the  sweet  repose  of  home,  in  the  steady 
routine  of  duty,  in  the  permitted  freedom  of 
natural  enjoyment,  in  the  dignity  of  serious 


SACRIFICE. 


171 

study,  nay,  in  the  very  offices  of  religion,  and 
in  the  form  of  worship,  whether  meagre  or 
stately,  self,  with  its  specious  blandishments, 
may  creep  in,  and  while  expecting  indulgence, 
may  stir  the  jealousy  of  God.  From  this  self- 
life, who  among  us,  conscious  of  God  search- 
ing Him,  can  dare  to  pronounce  himself  free? 

The  remedy  against  it  the  Apostle  proceeds 
to  indicate  under  the  terrible  figure  of  cruci- 
fixion. “ I am  crucified.”  Now,  without  dis- 
pute, this  expression  is  fairly  susceptible  of 
each,  at  least,  three  interpretations,  each  in 
harmony  with,  and  the  complement  of,  the 
other.  Literally,  of  course,  the  words  are, 
“ I have  been  crucified  with  Christ.”  When 
Christ  my  Head  and  Representative  was  cru- 
cified, I,  as  one  of  His  members,  and  through 
the  grace  of  His  incarnation  and  my  spiritual 
union  with  Him,  identified  with  Him  before 
the  Father,  was  crucified  too.  His  cross  was 
my  cross.  His  death  was  my  death.  “ If  one 
died,  then  all  died  ” [2  cor.  v.  w],  my  fellows,  and 
I among  them.  But  if  we  have  been  “ planted 
together  in  the  likeness  of  His  death,”  we 
shall  be  planted  also  “ in  the  likeness  of  His 
resurrection”  caom.vi.5].  This  is  evident,  since 


172 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIS  T. 


the  doctrine  it  declares  is  that  through  death 
comes  life.  As  the  Cross  to  Jesus  was  the 
way  to  triumph  and  glory,  so  the  Cross  to  His 
Church  means  regeneration  and  life.  “ If  we 
be  dead  with  Christ  we  shall  also  live  with 
Him”  [Rom. vi. 5].  Strange  it  is,  yet  true,  that 
he  who  is  born  of  God,  and  in  whom  God's 
seed  remains,  died  that  he  might  be  born — 
was  born  because  he  had  died.  “ I am  cruci- 
fied with  Christ;  nevertheless  I live.”  Yet 
this  fact  and  this  doctrine  are  hardly  the  most 
direct  lessons  that  the  figure  seems  intended 
to  convey.  What  St.  Paul  then  was  thinking 
of  was  the  present  and  the  future.  So,  when 
he  wrote  the  words,  he  indicated  an  inevitable 
discipline,  he  imposed  a perpetual  law.  The 
discipline  is  the  Cross,  the  law  is  self-denial. 

Christian  reader,  do  not  judge  me  to  be 
pushing  a mere  figure  into  a rhetorical  extrav- 
agance if  I dare  to  suggest  that  the  Chris- 
tian is  being  crucified  now.  Indeed,  it  is  no 
strained  mysticism,  but  a most  solemn  verity, 
which  the  sooner  we  face  and  master,  the  bet- 
ter it  will  be  for  us.  That  while  in  our  regen- 
erate nature  we  dwell  with  our  Lord  from 
Heaven  in  the  heavenly  places,  abiding  in 


SACRIFICE. 


1 73 

His  Body,  in  the  flesh — that  is,  our  old  cor- 
rupt nature,  we  are  on  the  Cross,  and  must 
remain  there  till  we  die.  “ They  that  are 
Christ's,”  says  the  same  Apostle  in  the  same 
epistle,  “ have  crucified  the  flesh  with  the 
affections  and  lusts”  [Gai.v.24].  By  all  means 
ask,  what  does  this  mean  ? Simply  this. 
That  so  long  as  the  flesh  remains,  and  our 
corrupt  affections  war  and  lust  in  our  mem- 
bers, for  us  to  come  down  from  the  Cross  (in 
other  words,  to  be  spared  the  Divine  disci- 
pline) might  be  to  give  up  the  battle  for  good- 
ness, and  to  go  back  to  our  sins.  Another 
way  of  putting  it,  perhaps  a better  way,  is 
that  the  Cross  on  which  our  Lord  did  hang 
that  He  might  expiate  our  sins,  is  the  Cross 
on  which  we  too  must  hang,  that  we  may 
crucify  and  subdue  them.  The  Cross,  with 
every  feature  of  it.  The  thorns  must  press 
our  brow,  that  we  may  bring  every  thought 
into  captivity  to  Him  and  to  His  Purpose. 
The  nails  must  be  in  our  hands  and  feet,  the 
organs  of  our  constant  activities,  that  they 
may  be  used  only  according  to  His  will ; nay, 
if  so  He  chooses,  not  to  be  used  at  all.  The 
spear-thrust  may  have  to  pierce  our  heart. 


1 74  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

For  sometimes,  even  in  our  holiest  and  dear- 
est affections,  He  deliberately,  though  always 
with  indescribable  tenderness,  wounds  us,  that 
we  may  flee  unto  Him  to  hide  us,  and  adore 
Him  more  fervently  than  ever,  with  the  pure 
love  of  greatly  chastened  souls.  Occasionally 
He  visits  us  with  an  awful  lonliness ; a sense 
of  utter  isolation  ; a sad  and  pitiful  mourn- 
fulness creeping  over  the  spirit,  like  the  dole- 
ful garment  of  a winter’s  night,  to  compel  us 
to  seek  Him,  who  alone  in  all  the  world  per- 
fectly understands  us,  and  will  cover  our  head 
in  the  day  of  battle.  After  all,  this  is  only 
the  reverse  side  of  what  the  Lord  once  said 
Himself : “ If  any  man  will  come  after  me, 
let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross 
and  follow  me”  [Matt.  m. 24].  It  is  the  same 
thing.  If  we  are  to  have  the  cross  in  some 
real  fashion,  does  it  much  matter  whether 
we  are  on  the  Cross  or  the  Cross  on  us  ; it 
borne  on  our  back  or  we  nailed  to  it  ? God 
forbid  that  we  should  preach  a gospel  of 
asceticism.  God  also  forbid  that  we  should 
shrink  from  a gospel  of  holiness.  But  holi- 
ness can  come  to  us  only  through  a Divine 
education  of  our  spirits,  conveyed  and  inter- 


SACRIFICE.  175 

preted  and  blessed  to  us  usually  through  cir- 
cumstances, by  His  own  grace. 

®NCE  more,  the  context  Law  of 

makes  it  plain  that  there  personal  Life. 
is  a law  of  the  personal  life  which  the  Apostle 
would  here  impose  on  the  Church  to  which  he 
was  writing,  and  to  which  he  had  been  careful 
to  submit  himself  in  his  own  life.  Not  only 
was  he,  through  his  condition  of  spiritual 
union  with  Christ,  dead  unto  sin,  as  to  its 
dominion  over  him,  and  his  own  lusting  after 
it ; he  was  also  dead  to  the  law  as  his  method 
of  being  justified  before  God.  Observe  this 
Gospel.  In  every  single  feature  of  God’s 
scheme  of  salvation,  whether  from  the  guilt 
of  sin  or  from  the  power  of  it,  self  is  to  be 
destroyed,  that  grace  may  be  pre-eminent  ; 
man  is  to  be  nothing,  that  God  may  be  su- 
preme. So  even  to  the  law  was  he  crucified, 
whether  as  a means  of  acceptance  or  as  a 
ground  of  boasting,  that  he  might  cleave  with 
his  whole  being  to  God,  who  gave  him  every- 
thing that  he  possessed.  Here,  again,  is  the 
great  law  of  our  life  laid  down  by  Christ  in 
those  tremendous  words,  “ If  any  man  come 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 


1 76 

to  me,  and  hate  not  his  father,  and  mother, 
and  wife,  and  children,  and  brethren,  and  sis- 
ters, yea,  and  his  own  life  also,  he  cannot  be 
my  disciple  ” [Luke  xiv.  26].  This  is  the  law  which 
is  to  denominate  every  sphere  of  our  exist- 
ence, which  claims  tribute-money  from  every 
talent  and  possession,  which  declines  to  abdi- 
cate its  authority  even  over  the  counsels  of 
our  perfection,  refuses  to  let  go  its  hold  of  us 
even  in  the  house  of  God.  In  some  things 
it  means  a quiet  watchfulness,  in  others  a 
manly  self-restraint ; here  an  equipoise  of  sur- 
render— there,  even  a stern  questioning  as  to 
the  habits  of  our  life.  Is  thy  home  filled, 
happy,  and  serene  ? Sometimes  whisper  to 
thyself,  not  querulously,  but  thoughtfully,  “ It 
is  mine,  and  it  is  meant  to  be  mine,  God's 
kind  gift  to  me.  Let  it  be  mine  so  long  as  it 
pleases  Him.  Yet  I must  not  quite  forget, 
here  is  not  my  rest."  Hast  thou  wealth?  Do 
not  fear  it,  for  God  made  Abram  rich.  Do 
not  lean  on  it,  for  He  made  Job  poor.  In  the 
enjoyment  and  use  of  the  good  things  of  God, 
by  all  means  enjoy  and  expect  the  favour  of 
Him  whose  first  manifestation  of  His  Father 
was  in  multiplying  wine  at  a peasant's  bridal. 


SACRIFICE. 


1 77 


Yet  if  His  Apostle  would  not  have  eaten  meat 
while  the  world  standeth  lest  he  should  make 
his  brother  to  offend  and  so  imperil  his  soul 
□ cor.  viii.  i3],  He  who  died  for  the  world — well, 
you  know  what  He  would  wish  of  you,  if  by 
some  sacrifice,  whether  of  palate  or  social 
exhilaration,  you  could  win  back  a soul  to 
virtue.  “ Every  creature  of  God  is  good,  and 
nothing  to  be  refused  if  it  be  received  with 
thanksgiving.”  So  writes  an  apostle.  Yet,  if 
liberty  is  good,  charity  is  better.  “ So  speak 
ye  and  so  do,  as  they  that  shall  be  judged  by 
the  law  of  liberty”  [James it  123.  May  God  in 
His  mercy  give  us,  when  we  murmur  at  the 
greatness  of  our  petty  sacrifices,  first  to  look 
up  at  His  Son's  Cross,  and  then  back  at  the 
days  when,  for  His  dear  sake,  gentle  women 
faced  the  lions,  and  boys  went  bravely  to  die, 
and  the  cruel  flames  licked  faces  that  were 
radiant  with  the  ecstasy  of  martyrdom  ; and 
perhaps,  worst  of  all,  children  suffered  before 
the  very  eyes  of  their  parents,  still  constant 
to  Christ. 

The  lines  that  follow  will  prove  a better 
sermon  than  mine.  They  are  a poet's  gospel : 


i78 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


“ I was  born  sickly,  poor,  and  mean, 

A slave  ; no  misery  could  screen 
The  holders  of  the  pearl  of  price 
From  Caesar’s  envy  ; therefore  twice 
I fought  with  beasts,  and  three  times  saw 
My  children  suffer  by  his  law. 

At  last  my  own  release  was  earned  ; 

I was  some  time  in  being  burned, 

But,  at  the  close,  a hand  came  through 
The  fire  above  my  head,  and  drew 
My  soul  to  Christ,  whom  now  I see. 

Sergius,  a brother,  writes  for  me 
This  testimony  on  the  wall — 

For  me,  I have  forgot  it  all.” 

— Robert  Browning. 

All  this  with  But  all  this  is  “with  Christ.,, 

Christ.  Christ,  whose  blood  has  pro- 

cured our  peace,  whose  presence  can  fill  our 
loneliness,  whose  example  is  the  illumination 
of  our  life,  whose  fellowship  is  the  dignity  of 
our  labour,  whose  image  is  the  end  of  our 
faith,  whose  welcome  is  the  hope  of  our  re- 
ward. For  He  on  His  Cross  suffering  and  dy- 
ing for  us,  thereby  once  and  for  all  made  our 
peace  with  God  ; and  this  cross  of  ours  is  not 
to  make  atonement  for  the  sin,  which  He  put 
away  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself,  completely 
and  forever.  Rather  it  is  to  help  us  to  dis- 


SACRIFICE. 


179 


cern  and  abhor  and  subdue  it,  just  because  it 
has  been  put  away;  with  His  mind  and  will 
about  it,  “resisting  unto  blood  ” [Heb.xii.rj.  Oh, 
let  us  try  to  believe  that  He  is  with  us  there, 
bidding  us  not  to  fear,  nor  to  think  ourselves 
forgotten.  Tenderly  and  sadly  He  watches  us 
in  our  pain,  while  far  too  strong  of  purpose  to 
take  us  down  from  it,  till  His  purpose  about 
us  is  done.  His  own  example  illuminates  us, 
for  the  restraining  and  subduing  of  the  inno- 
cent self-life  is  wonderfully  manifest  in  Him, 
from  the  moment  that  He  went  down  to 
Nazareth  and  was  subject  unto  His  parents, 
until  the  moment  when  He  commended  His 
spirit  into  His  Heavenly  Father’s  hands.  In 
the  Temptation,  He  steadily  refused  the  rea- 
sonable assuagement  of  His  bodily  necessities. 
In  His  ministry,  He  put  away  all  commenda- 
tion from  others  — “Why  callest  thou  me 
good?” — ever  referring  to  His  Father,  His 
words  of  truth,  His  deeds  of  power,  His  pur- 
pose of  life.  In  His  agony  He  murmured, 
“The  cup  which  my  Father  hath  given  me, 
shall  I not  drink  it?”  [John xviu.  11].  He  drank 
it.  In  His  prayer  in  the  supper-chamber  it 
was  the  repose  of  His  heart  that  He  had 


x8o  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

sought  His  Father's  glory,  not  His  own. 
[John  xvii.  4].  And  His  image  is  the  end  of  our 
faith,  for  what  we  desire,  or  at  least  profess 
to  desire,  is  to  be  like  Him,  and  the  methods 
and  helps  for  becoming  more  like  Him,  we 
must  each  in  the  light  of  our  own  conscience, 
and  the  exercise  of  our  own  judgment,  choose 
and  practise  for  ourselves.  Yet  let  us  be  care- 
ful to  remember  that  honest  faith  about  them 
as  ordained  by  God  and  suitable  for  us,  is  the 
only  secret  of  their  helping  our  sanctification  ; 
that  not  grace  inherent  in  them,  but  grace 
conveyed  through  them,  can  edify  us  into 
God. 


fe^IHREE  last  thoughts  over  pinai 
|ll.tll  a subject  of  almost  inex-  reflections. 
haustible  fulness  and  also  of  profound  humilia- 
tion, on  matters  that  may  help  some  one  who 
honestly  wishes  to  make  sacrifices  for  Christ 
to  discover  the  secret.  First,  let  us  be  sure 
of  this,  that  no  life  deserving  the  name  of 
Christian  can  ever  exist,  without  the  law  and 
habit  of  sacrifice,  in  some  degree  at  least,  col- 
ouring and  dominating  it.  Also,  that  the  se- 
cret of  its  freedom  and  progress,  its  continu- 


SACRIFICE. 


1 8 1 


ousness  and  expansion,  its  beauty  and  its  in- 
fluence, will  be,  must  be,  in  exact  proportion 
to  the  sincerity  of  our  struggle  with  self. 
Whether  to  help  the  Church’s  triumph,  or 
our  own  holiness,  we  must  fight  selfishness. 

“ It  is  the  profoundest  of  all  moral  truths, 
that  a man  who  would  work  out  his  salvation 
must  cast  out  self,  though  he  rend  his  heart- 
strings in  doing  it.  Not  love  of  self-indul- 
gence only,  but  self-applause,  self-confidence, 
self-conceit  and  vanity,  desire  and  expecta- 
tion of  reward  ; self  in  all  the  subtle  ingenui- 
ties with  which  it  winds  about  the  soul.”  * 

Then,  the  only  way  to  be  capable  of  lofty 
sacrifices  is  first  to  begin  with  humble  ones. 
The  doing  of  the  little  duties  at  our  own 
house-door,  the  love  of  our  neighbour,  per- 
haps uninteresting  and  a little  stupid,  are  the 
first  steps  in  the  ladder  of  goodness,  at  the 
top  of  which  sparkles  the  martyr’s  crown. 
For  there  are  martyrs  now  who  live  out  their 
quiet  years,  die  in  their  beds,  wear  every-day 
clothes,  enjoy  homely  worship,  yet  lay  their 
lives  at  their  Heavenly  Master’s  feet  as  fully 


* J.  A.  Froude. 


1 82  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 

and  as  acceptably  as  either  Ignatius  or  Ridley. 
It  is  the  habit  of  making  sacrifices  in  small 
things  that  enables  us  for  making  them  in 
great,  when  it  is  asked  of  us.  Temper,  love  of 
pre-eminence,  bodily  indulgence,  the  quick  re- 
tort, the  sharp  irony — in  checking  these  let  us 
find  our  cross  and  carry  it.  Or,  when  the  mo- 
ment comes  for  some  really  great  service,  the 
heart  will  be  petrified  for  it,  and  the  blinded 
eyes  will  not  see  the  occasion  of  love. 

But  the  hardest  question  is  the  last.  We 
admit,  of  course,  the  need  of  sacrifice ; recog- 
nize its  nobleness,  bow  to  its  necessity.  But 
we  cannot  admit  its  easiness,  nor  discover  its 
joy. 

Whose  fault  is  this?  Not  Christ’s.  It  is 
our  own.  If  we  would  only  learn  to  trust 
Him,  dare  to  yield  to  Him,  ask  to  love  Him, 
then  He  would  make  His  service  perfect  free- 
dom; then  His  yoke  would  be  easy  and  His 
burden  light. 

For  we  need  not  wait  till  we  reach  the  sin- 
less land,  and  the  perfect  liberty  of  the  chil- 
dren of  God,  for  the  joy  of  a discovered 
Saviour. 

This  pen  is  not  worthy  to  write  it,  yet  what 


SACRIFICE.  183 

it  writes  is  true — He  Himself  is  the  substance 
of  our  reward  to  the  souls  that  wait  for  Him; 
and  do  they  need  a better?  Oh,  that  this 
heart  of  mine  were  but  able  to  explain,  to 
persuade  you  what  Christ  has  for  those  who 
love  Him ; how  He  can  flood  the  soul  that  is 
emptied  of  human  delights  for  His  sake  with 
brimming  rivers  of  grace  \ Life  and  liberty, 
joy  and  power  come  in  return  for  this  sacrifice 
of  self,  for  this  patient  hanging  on  the  cross 
of  self-denial.  Life,  more  and  more  abun- 
dantly, and  in  exact  proportion  to  the  death 
of  the  will  to  sin.  Liberty,  in  running  the 
way  of  His  commandments,  because  He  has 
enlarged  our  hearts  [Ps.cxix.3j.  Oh,  be  sure  that 
Self  it  is,  and  nothing  but  self,  that  makes 
His  commandments  grievous.  When  once 
we  resist  self,  really  resist  it,  we  find  a burden 
gone.  JOY,  the  joy  of  God,  which  He  means 
for  us  and  offers  to  us,  if  only  we  knew  it. 
Why  are  we  so  suspicious  of  joy — looking 
askance  at  it  as  if  it  were  some  heated  ex- 
citement or  rash  presumption,  when  even  an 
Old  Testament  prophet  could  say  to  the  He- 
brews under  the  first  covenant,  “ The  joy  of 
the  Lord  is  your  strength  ” [Neh.  vm.  ioj  ; when 


j84  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

an  Apostle  (full  of  humility),  waiting  for  his 
martyrdom,  wrote  as  with  his  dying  pen,  and 
from  the  place  of  his  dismal  captivity,  to 
press  it  as  a duty  on  the  Church  ? A dying 
saint  of  our  own  time  was  heard  to  exclaim, 
“Joy,  joy,  I shall  see  my  Lord  to-night ! ” 
Why  should  this  seem,  as  to  some  it  cer- 
tainly would  seem,  the  cry  of  a hysterical  re- 
ligion ? That  such  a reproach  is  possible,  only 
shows  us  how  far  we  may  be  from  the  glad- 
ness of  the  primitive  times.  If  Christ  were 
felt  to  be  our  dearest  Friend,  and  we  ever 
tried  to  make  Him  so,  going  to  depart  to  be 
with  Him,  would  be  felt  to  be  far  better;  and 
simple  faith  in  His  gracious  promises  and  fin- 
ished redemption  would  rob  death  of  its  sting 
and  conscience  of  its  reproaches.  Yet  we 
need  not  be  dying,  nor  wait  till  we  die,  to 
catch  the  spirit  of  joy  even  now.  Natures 
differ,  and  we  must  not  try  to  fit  ourselves 
into  other  moulds,  or  we  shall  suffer  for  our 
unreality.  Yet,  for  the  soul  that  counts  all 
things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the 
knowledge  of  Christ,  joy  should  run  over. 

Also  Power.  We  can  all  complain  how 
weak  we  are  ; and  complaining  of  weakness 


SACRIFICE . 


185 

which  we  might  prevent  and  remedy,  if  we 
pleased,  is  a poor  kind  of  humility.  No  doubt 
it  is  better  to  complain  of  it  than  to  be  con- 
tent with  it.  Yet  the  loftiest  saint  who  ever 
lived,  who  called  himself  the  chief  of  sinners, 
because  he  honestly  felt  he  was,  scrupled  not 
to  say,  “ I can  do  all  things  through  Christ 
which  strengtheneth  me”  qwiii.iv.13]. 

The  more  we.  surrender  for  Christ,  the  more 
we  get  back  from  Him.  The  emptier  the  soul 
is  of  self,  so  much  the  more  room  for  Him  to 
possess  and  gladden  it  with  His  divine  fulness. 
All  will  at  least  be  stones  in  the  glorified  tem- 
ple ; but  some  will  be  pillars.  Shall  we  ? Not 
for  personal  ambition,  but  that  the  Son  of 
God  may  be  glorified  thereby.  “ To  him  that 
overcometh,  will  I give  to  be  a pillar  in  the 
temple  of  my  God,  and  I will  write  upon  him 
my  new  name  ” [Rev.  in.  12]. 


VI. 


GLORY. 


MI  BESEECH  THEE,  SHOW  ME  THY  GLORY.” 

u Man's  chief  end  is  to  glorify  God , and  to  enjoy 
Him  for  ever." 

HAT  glory?  For  Moses,  of  course, 
the  glory  of  the  Divine  character. 
The  Divine  answer  to  that  prayer 
was,  “ I will  make  all  my  goodness  pass  be- 
fore thee”  [Exod. xxxhi. i9].  For  us  who  are  in 
the  last  time  it  is  the  glory  of  the  Word  made 
flesh.  A new  glory,  because  the  glory  of  His 
risen  humanity  ; an  endless  glory,  never  to 
cease  ; nay,  let  us  be  bold  and  say,  never  even 
to  cease  augmenting  and  growing  till  the  end 
shall  come.  You  ask  why?  Remember  St. 
Peter’s  words  : “ The  sufferings  of  Christ,  and 
the  glory  that  should  follow  ” [i  Pet.  i.  i].  Clearly 
(186) 


GLOR  Y. 


18; 

understand  that  the  glory  of  the  Resurrection 
was  to  come,  not  only  after  the  Passion  in 
order  of  time,  but  after  it  as  part  of  its  ex- 
ceeding great  reward.  “ Who  raised  Him 
from  the  dead  ” [ipet.i.21],  and  gave  Him 
glory,  writes  the  same  Apostle  later  on  in  the 
chapter.  And  it  is  plain  from  Scripture  that 
this  glory  was  not  only  the  misty  vision 
of  enraptured  prophets,  but  the  sustaining 
and  ever-present  anticipation  of  the  suffering 
Christ.  For  hope  was  no  stranger  to  the 
human  heart  of  Jesus.  Of  man,  in  a real 
sense,  it  is  said,  “ We  are  saved  by  hope” 
[Rom.  viii.  24j.  But  even,  in  Him,  too,  may  we  not 
say  with  perfect  and  holy  reverence,  it  was  an 
anchor  of  the  soul  keeping  it  from  drifting 
before  the  storm,  telling  Him  that  the  dark- 
ness was  passing  and  the  dawn  at  hand  ? We 
observe  this  in  His  words  both  before  He  suf- 
fered, and  after  He  suffered ; also  in  the 
words  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  when  His  glory 
had  become  all  His  own.  To  the  Apostles  : 
“Now  is  the  Son  of  Man  glorified,  and  God 
is  glorified  in  Him.  If  God  be  glorified  in 
Him,  God  shall  also  glorify  Him  in  Himself,  and 
shall  straightway  glorify  Him  ” [John  mi.  31, 32],  In 


1 88 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


the  sacerdotal  prayer  to  His  own  Holy  Fath- 
er : “And  now,  O Father,  glorify  Thou  me 
with  Thine  own  self  with  the  glory  which  I 
had  with  Thee  before  the  world  was”  u>hn xvii. s\. 
After  He  had  risen,  to  His  disciples  on  the 
way  to  Emmaus  : “ Ought  not  Christ  to  have 
suffered  these  things,  and  to  enter  into  His 
glory?”  [Luke xxiv. 26],  as  something  He  expected. 
Once  more,  we  read  in  the  Hebrews  : “ Who 
for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him  endured 
the  Cross,  despising  the  shame,  and  is  set 
down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Throne  of 
God  ” [Heb.xii.2].  I propose  that  on  the  nature 
of  this  glory  we  should  meditate  now ; if  the 
last,  almost  the  most  wonderful  feature  of  the 
Gospel,  profoundly  conscious  that  the  glory 
The  nature  of  of  Christ,  and  the  glory  into 
tkis glory.  which  His  Church  shall  one  day 

be  transfigured,  when  she  sees  Him  as  He  is, 
as  much  passeth  our  entire  comprehension  as 
His  Love  doth  ; yet  that  if  and  because  it  is 
to  be  ours,  when  we  sit  with  Him  on  the 
Throne,  He  will  not  be  displeased  with  us,  if 
we  try  to  think  about  it  before  we  reach  it. 

The  glory  of  Christ  is  the  manifestation  of 
His  Sonship ; and  it  is  first  of  all  seen  in 


GLOR  Y. 


189 

His  accomplished  purpose  — “The  riches  of 
the  glory  of  the  mystery  ” [Coi.i.273  blessedly 
conceived  in  the  Divine  heart  before  the 
worlds  were  made,  and  slowly  elaborated  as 
the  ages  went  on  in  the  unspeakable  patience 
of  God.  “ I have  a baptism  to  be  baptized 
with  ; and  how  am  I straitened  until  it  be  ac- 
complished ! ” [Luke xii. 50].  This  to  His  disci- 
ples. Just  before  He  suffered,  His  word  of 
praise  was  this  : “ I have  glorified  Thee  on 
the  earth  : I have  finished  the  work  which 
Thou  gavest  me  to  do  ” [John  xv ii.  4].  This  to 
His  Father.  Immediately  before  He  expired, 
He  said:  “It  is  finished”  [John xix. 30].  This 
ended  all.  Not  till  then  could  He  die.  That 
eternal  purpose  was  God  and  man  made  one — 
in  Him.  “When  He  had  by  Himself  purged 
our  sins  ” [Heb.i.3];  and  again,  “ having  offered 
one  sacrifice  for  sins”  [Heb.x.12];  and  again, 
“ having  obtained  eternal  redemption  for  us.” 
These  are  the  several  faces  or  aspects  of  that 
atoning  work  which  the  Love  of  the  Eternal 
Three  accomplished  in  the  Incarnation.  And 
the  glory  of  this  ! One  soul  saved,  what  a 
mystery  of  pity,  and  forbearance,  and  wisdom, 
and  power,  which  only  He  who  put  them  forth 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


I90 

can  understand.  But  a race  redeemed,  and  a 
Church  decked  in  the  life  and  righteousness 
of  God  — we  must  be  in  Heaven  before  we 
can  guess  what  it  means. 

Then  there  is  the  glory  of  the  Father’s  wel- 
come: “ Now  come  I to  Thee”  [John  m.  13]. 
“ The  love  wherewith  Thou  hast  loved  me  ” 
[John  xvii.  26].  Here  were  the  thoughts  that  made 
summer  in  His  soul  as  He  met  His  dying. 
“ This  is  my  Beloved  Son  in  whom  I am  well 
pleased”  [Matt. xvn, 5].  Here  is  the  Divine  com- 
placency and  joy  wherewith  from  first  to  last 
the  Father  beheld  Him.  “ I do  always  such 
things  that  please  Him”  [John viii. 29]  was  the 
calm  account  of  His  life  that  smote  conviction 
into  the  Jews.  It  were  useless,  if  not  pre- 
sumptuous, for  us  to  inquire  which  of  two 
motives  more  constrained  Him  to  His  Cross 
— love  to  God  or  love  to  man.  This,  how- 
ever, is  plain,  that  God  He  infinitely  loved, 
being  in  indissoluble  union  and  sympathy 
with  Him  before  the  worlds  were  made;  and 
oh,  what  a blessed  welcome,  what  an  august 
reception,  what  a tender  recognition  (to  speak 
of  Divine  things  in  human  language) ; what  a 
pomp  of  principalities  and  powers  must  have 


GLORY. 


I9I 

been  marshalled  to  meet  Him,  when  He 
passed  through  the  Heavens,  and  sat  down 
for  ever  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  “ being 
made  so  much  better  than  the  angels,  as  He 
hath  by  inheritance  obtained  a more  excellent 
name  than  they”  [Heb.  i.  4].  But  this  is  holy 
ground,  and  we  must  not  further  tread  on  it. 

In  the  third  place,  it  was  the  glory  of  a 
crowned  humanity.  At  His  conception  act- 
ually, at  His  birth  visibly,  He  took  the  man- 
hood into  union  with  God.  After  His  Resur- 
rection He  took  the  manhood  so  united  to  be 
crowned  with  glory  and  honour  in  Heaven. 
Gratefuily,  as  we  bow  before  the  Cross, 
humbly  and  devoutly  as  we  say,  was  ever  sor- 
row like  that  sorrow,  or  love  like  that  love, 
had  there  been  only  a Cross  and  a grave,  with 
no  crowning  after  the  Cross,  no  rising  out  of 
the  grave,  the  world  would  still  be  in  its  sins 
and  Death  king.  But  hear  St.  Paul's  gospel : 
“ It  is  Christ  that  died,  yea,  rather,  that  is 
risen  again,  who  is  even  at  the  right  hand  of 
God,  who  also  maketh  intercession  for  us  ” 
[Rom.  viii.  34].  That  is  a gospel.  When  Christ 
died  man  was  redeemed,  and  when  He  rose 
man  was  justified,  and  when  He  ascended  man 


192 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


was  crowned.  The  last  of  all  God's  works,  he 
is  immeasurably  the  noblest.  Never  despair 
of  him,  and  never  despise  him.  Made  in 
God's  image,  and  for  fellowship  with  Him, 
even  in  his  fall  and  ruin,  he  is  wonderful  and 
lovely.  But  in  his  Resurrection  how  blessed, 
in  his  regeneration  how  sublime  ! With  the 
physical  symmetry  and  fairness  of  his  outer 
form,  with  his  reason  and  intelligence,  his 
kingly  will,  his  judicial  conscience,  and  his  af- 
fectionate heart,  any  man  or  woman  you  find, 
even  though  soiled  with  the  worst  soils  of 
moral  pollution,  is  a wonderful  work  of  God. 
But  when  perfect  instead  of  fallen,  immortal, 
with  the  last  enemy,  Death,  behind ; pure 
with  the  purity  of  God,  wise  with  His  truth, 
penetrated  by  His  love,  vital  with  His  grace, 
and  inspired  with  His  purpose,  what  kings 
and  queens  will  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord 
hereafter  become,  sitting  on  their  thrones  of 
power  in  the  Kingdom  of  the  Father!  Christ 
then,  indeed,  will  be  King  of  kings  and  Lord 
of  lords ; and  we,  if  we  are  worthy  of  admis- 
sion there,  shall  be  kings  and  lords  under  Him, 
each  with  our  sphere  of  power,  and  our  func- 
tion of  duty,  and  our  keys  of  government,  and 


GLORY ; 


193 


our  raiment  of  light ; the  proportions  of  our 
life  complete,  the  symmetry  of  our  duty,  char- 
ity, worship  perfect,  our  length  and  breadth 
and  height  equal. 

As  His  Resurrection  is  our  resurrection — 
for  “ as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall 
all  be  made  alive  ” cicor.xv.  221—  observe  the  “ all  ” 
— so  is  His  Coronation  the  pledge  of  ours.  We 
do  not  yet  comprehend  all  that  we  shall  be, 
for  we  cannot  now  see  what  He  will  be.  This 
we  do  know,  that  those  whom  He  has  washed 
from  their  sins  in  His  blood,  He  hath  made 
kings  and  priests  unto  God  and  His  Father; 
and  the  fancy  reels  before  the  amazing  con- 
ception of  the  noble  tasks,  the  continuous  tes- 
timony, the  grand  vice-royalty,  the  expanding 
power,  that  it  may  please  Him  who  is  at  once 
our  Head  and  our  Master,  our  God  and  our 
King,  to  bestow  on  the  ransomed  race  in  ever- 
lasting spousal  union  with  Himself,  through 
all  the  coming  ages,  perhaps  for  all  the  uni- 
verse of  worlds. 

“To  him  that  overcometh  will  I give  to  sit 
with  me  in  my  throne ; even  as  I overcame, 
and  am  set  down  with  my  Father  on  His 
throne  ” [Rev.  hi.  21].  This  is  a great  mystery, 
and  with  a profound  meaning. 

14 


i94 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


' Again,  it  is  the  glory  of  His  mediatorial  of- 
fice. He  died  that  salvation  might  be  possi- 
ble. He  rose  that  it  might  be  actual.  What 
His  Cross  procured,  His  Resurrection  con- 
firms. It  is  still  true  of  Him-—“The  Son  of 
Man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which 
is  lost  ” [Luke  xix.  io].  He  is  still  Saviour.  He  is 
still  Son  of  Man.  Never  will  He  lose  or  deny 
that  name  by  which  on  earth  He  seems  to 
have  loved  best  to  call  Himself — that  name 
which  is  our  true  link  with  Him,  now  that  He 
is  reigning  in  Heaven.  He  is  still  seeking, 
still  saving  the  lost ; and  if  it  seems  that  more 
are  lost  than  ever  there  were,  for  the  earth 
must  be  fuller  through  this  eighteen  hundred 
years,  may  we  not  still  more  truly  say,  there 
are  more  found?  Jesus  lives,  and  we  know 
it,  when  He  lives  in  our  heart.  Jesus  saves, 
and  we  know  it,  not  only  because  it  may  have 
pleased  Him  to  save  us,  but  when  it  pleases 
Him  to  use  us  for  saving  others.  Jesus 
pleads,  and  we  know  it,  for  the  Comforter  is 
come  to  us  from  the  Father,  making  the  Gos- 
pel potent,  and  conscience  restless,  and  sin  a 
bondage,  and  pity  keen,  and  prayer  mighty, 
and  the  Bible  precious,  and  the  world  startled, 


GLORY. 


195 

and  the  Church  awake.  If  it  was  glory  foi 
Jesus  to  die,  it  was  glory  for  Him  to  rise.  If 
it  pleased  Him  to  suffer,  it  was  that  He  might 
be  mighty  to  save ; and  as  every  ransomed 
soul  passes  up  out  of  its  conflicts  and  sor- 
rows into  the  presence  of  the  Incarnate  King, 
He  sees  of  “the  travail  of  His  soul  and  is  sat- 
isfied ” [isaiahiiii.ii].  Yet  it  is  the  manifested 
glory  of  one  who  is  the  Light  of  the  World. 
This  He  claimed  for  Himself  when  on  earth; 
and  we  can  hardly  wonder  that  so  lofty  an 
assertion  should  have  provoked  an  indignant 
surprise.  Yet  it  is  what  St.  Paul  also  claimed 
for  Him,  when  He  stood  before  Festus,  “that 
Christ  should  suffer,  and  that  He  should  be 
the  first  that  should  rise  from  the  dead,  and 
should  show  light  unto  the  people  and  to  the 
Gentiles  ” [Actsxxvi.23].  And  has  He  not  since 
justified  that  assertion  by  the  matchless  influ- 
ence of  His  Name?  False  prophet  or  true, 
Son  of  God,  or  only  son  of  Mary,  a blas- 
phemer or  speaking  the  words  of  truth  and 
soberness ; now  reigning  King  in  Heaven,  or 
but  a handful  of  dust  in  a Syrian  grave ; by 
the  confession  of  His  enemies,  to  whom  in 
spite  of  themselves  He  is  an  object  of  absorb- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


I96 

in g interest ; with  the  acclamation  of  the  dis- 
ciples to  whom  the  instant  and  entire  recogni- 
tion of  all  His  claims  is  the  only  explanation 
of  His  life  that  satisfies  their  reason : the  only 
outcome  of  His  death  that  stills  their  heart, 
Christ  is  any  way  pre-eminent.  Wisely  or 
foolishly,  rightly  or  wrongly,  He  is  the  centre 
of  human  attraction ; the  fountain  of  perfect 
morality ; the  character  which,  in  itself  com- 
plete, meets  all  possible  demands  of  the 
human  conscience;  the  Friend  who  attracts 
the  secret  sympathies  of  rich  and  poor, 
young  and  old  ; the  Prophet  who  has  raised 
the  world,  bad  as  it  is,  to  a higher  level  than 
it  had  ever  dreamed  of  without  Him  ; the 
Saviour,  who  from  some  that  read  these  lines 
has  earned  a gratitude  that  no  eternity  can 
exhaust.  But  it  is  His  Resurrection  and  As- 
cension that  have  made  Him  this.  He  is 
light  to  the  angels  in  Heaven,  to  mankind  on 
earth,  to  the  spirits  in  Hades,  to  the  devils  in 
hell.  To  the  angels  in  Heaven,  who  through 
the  Church,  now  discern  in  Him,  as  they  could 
not  before  discern,  the  manifold  wisdom  of 
God.  To  mankind  upon  earth,  which  in  be- 
holding Him  behold  the  Father  in  righteous- 


GLORY. 


197 


ness,  mercy,  and  truth.  To  the  spirits  in 
Hades,  to  some  of  whom  once,  when  He 
tasted  death  for  all  men,  He  Himself 
preached  His  own  Gospel,  be  sure  not  in 
vain.  To  devils  in  hell,  to  whom  the  Res- 
urrection was  the  utter  foiling  and  baffling 
of  the  mystery  of  evil,  when  most  it  ex- 
pected to  triumph  by  forcing  on  the  Death 
of  the  Cross.  “ Having  spoiled  principalities 
and  powers  He  made  a show  of  them  openly  ? 
triumphing  over  them  in  it  ” [Coi.n.i5]. 

But  about  this  glory  the  Lord  besought  His 
Father,  on  behalf  of  His  Apostles,  that  they 
might  behold  it  [joim  xvii.  243,  even  then;  having 
said  just  before,  that  He  had  already  given  it 
to  them : “And  the  glory  which  Thou  gavest 
me  I have  given  them  ; that  they  may  be  one, 
even  as  we  are  one  ” [John  xvii.  22]. 

This  glory  for  us  is  our  manifested  Sonship  ; 
partly  visible  now,  to  be  perfectly  revealed  in 
the  life  to  come. 

There  are  four  degrees  or  steps  in  Sonship. 
here  is  the  Sonship  of  original  creation,  and 
baptismal  privilege,  and  of  conscious  union,, 
id  of  glorified  life.  Of  the  first,  the  prophet/ 


alachi  writes  : “ Have  we  not  all  one  Father 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


198 


hath  not  one  God  created  us?”  [Mai. a.  10:.  We 
read — Of  the  second,  “ Baptizing  them  in  (into) 
the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost”  [Matt.  xxvm.  19].  The  children 
have  the  Father's  name.  Of  the  third  St. 
John  writes:  “To  as  many  as  received  Him, 
to  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the  sons 
of  God,  even  unto  them  that  believe  on  His 
name”  [John i.  12].  Sonship  realized.  Of  the 
fourth,  we  read  in  the  Revelation : “ He  that 
overcometh  shall  inherit  all  things ; and  I 
will  be  his  God,  and  he  shall  be  my  son  ” 


[nev.  xxi.  8]. 


This  Sonship,  or  Glory,  is  simply  Christ's 
image,  and  relationship  to  God,  and  work  for 
man,  so  far  as  the  possibilities  of  things  per- 
mit, reproduced  in  and  continued  by  us, 
through  our  union  with  Him,  and  by  the 
grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

We,  too,  as  the  sons  of  God,  have  to  finish 
the  work  given  us  to  do,  and  by  the  power  of 
our  continual  intercession  to  do  for  men  what 
they  will  not  do  for  themselves,  plead  on  their 
behalf  with  God.  We,  too,  have  to  fill  up 
that  which  is  behind  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ 
in  the  flesh  for  His  body's  sake,  the  Church ; 


GLOR  V. 


I99 

wc,  too,  by  our  goodness,  are  to  be  salt  and 
light  to  the  world. 

In  an  earlier  chapter  (ii.)  the  thought  was 
pressed  of  the  need  of  individuality,  both  as 
a help  to  us  to  discover  the  work  given  us  to 
do,  and  also  to  enable  us  to  do  it.  It  has  not 
only  to  be  discovered  and  commenced,  but  to 
be  finished,  with  as  little  incompleteness  as 
may  be,  though  I suppose  no  one,  except 
One,  has  ever  yet  done  all  the  good  works 
which  God  before  ordained  that  he  should 
walk  in,  with  as  few  mistakes  as  may  be, 
though  the  art  of  avoiding  blunders  is  usually 
learned  only  when  the  opportunity  of  making 
them  is  over,  with  as  little  reluctance  as  may 
be. 

For  who  of  us  does  not  know  the  humbling 
necessity  of  having  almost  to  flog  his  will  into 
even  a tolerable  diligence,  with  self  postponed 
to  the  one  supreme  object  of  glorifying  God. 

Not  to  waste  time,  and  also  to  learn,  with- 
out making  life  fretful  to  ourselves,  and  in- 
tolerable to  others,  how  to  husband  and  use 
its  tiniest  fragments ; to  appreciate  opportu- 
nities, which  are  really  the  critical  moments  of 
usefulness,  and  which  float  the  labouring  ship 


200 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


on  the  crest  of  the  wave ; to  have  a deep,  and 
growing,  and  wonderful  appreciation  of  the 
vast  results  of  the  quickly  passing  moments 
on  the  coming  eternity,  as  if  each  act  and 
word  was  a seed-germ  of  incalculable  impor- 
tance for  the  great  spaces  in  front ; to  learn 
the  way  of  constantly  appreciating  the  value 
of  our  individual  conduct  on  those  with  whom 

Iwe  are  thrown : in  a word,  to  have  tenacity 
without  obstinateness,  concentration  without 
deformity,  elasticity  without  suppleness,  self- 
Iknowledge  without  egotism  ; here  is  the  secret 
|of  getting  done  before  we  go  part  at  least  of 
the  task  we  started  with,  when  our  serious 
life  began  ; here,  too,  the  keeping  hold  of  that 
continuity  of  life  and  plan,  which  makes  even 
the  humblest  life  a kind  of  epic  with  the 
angels  in  Heaven.  Oh,  how  much  is  wasted 
and  poorly  done,  and  therefore  unrewarded, 
through  desultoriness  of  nature,  and  levity  of 
purpose,  and  a sort  of  slipshod  way  of  shuf- 
fling through  life,  with  shoes  down  at  the  heels 
and  the  nerve-strings  of  our  mind  and  will 
loose  and  dangling.  Not  so  may  Christians 
fill  their  niche  in  the  temple  of  glorified  souls 
and  leave  their  mark  on  men.  Let  each  of  us 


GLOR  Y. 


201 


ask  ourselves,  What  can  I do  best ; what  is 
it  that  I am  attempting  to  do ; is  it  being 
done;  how?  We  have,  each  of  us,  stages  in 
our  life,  with  duties,  trials,  opportunities,  les- 
sons peculiar  to  it.  We  cannot  go  back  to 
pick  up  anything  dropped  in  the  stage  be- 
hind ; each  period  has  its  own  task  and  its 
own  discipline,  and  we  have  nothing  to  spare 
either  for  the  past  or  the  future.  We  live 
only  in  the  present ; let  us  fill  it  with  grave, 
diligent,  thoughtful  activities.  The  past  is 
out  of  our  reach ; the  future  is  unknown. 
Let  us  remember,  further,  that  it  is  not  only 
in  the  discharge  of  external  activities  with 
others  that  our  given  task  is  to  be  done ; 
there  is  an  inward  task  upon  ourselves.  I 
mean  the  task  of  self-discipline.  We  read  of 
.holiness  by  faith,  and  truly  there  is  no  holi- 
ness without  faith.  Yet  this  is  only  one-half 
of  the  truth.  Holiness  must  come  also  by 
effort,  and  watchfulness,  and  contemplation, 
and  deep  desire,  and  self-restraint,  and  the  use 
of  those  divinely  appointed  channels  through 
which  grace  flows  into  the  soul.  The  older  I 
grow  the  more  convinced  I become,  that  much 
of  the  imperfect,  and  inconsistent,  and  ill-de- 


202 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


veloped,  and  one-sided  goodness  we  observe 
in  modern  types  of  the  religious  life,  springs 
from  our  not  sufficiently  remembering  that 
we  are  at  the  best  sick  men,  who  need  careful 
regimen,  prudent  restraints,  sometimes  crutch- 
es, often  medicine.  It  is  possible  that  rules 
may  fret  us  as  inconsistent  both  with  the 
theory  and  enjoyment  of  our  Christian  freer 
dom ; yet  they  are  often  needful  to  educate 
us  for  liberty,  as  well  as  to  help  us  in  it ; and 
that  more  soberness  mingled  with  our  joyous* 
sense  of  pardon,  more  regulating  power  in 
the  grateful  acceptance  of  God’s  bountiful 
goodness,  would  at  once  steady  our  action, 
and  mature  as  well  as  stimulate  our  growth. 
Many  and  many  a gray-headed  Christian  is 
but  a child  after  all  in  spiritual  life  and  cult- 
ure, and  has  no  right  to  the  privileges  of 
manhood,  if  ripeness  is  not  in  years,  but  in 
character.  If  he  chooses  to  take  them  no 
one  can  prevent  him,  but  he  suffers  from  it, 
and  the  Church  too.  Mr.  Phillips  Brooks,  in 
one  of  the  most  suggestive  of  his  sermons, 
has  explained  the  value  of  Lenten  observance, 
in  one  of  its  features — fasting — to  be  twofold  : 
that  it  expresses  repentance,  and  uncovers  the 


GLORY. 


203 

life  to  God.  Some  of  us  are  startled  even  at 
the  word,  as  if  it  was  a Roman  austerity,  which 
the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  has  exiled  from  the 
culture  of  the  soul.  It  is  certain  that  a great 
many  really  Christian  people  would  be  far 
happier  and  holier  if  they  were  more  circum- 
spect and  intelligent  than  they  are  in  regulat- 
ing their  habits  of  speech  and  food,  their 
hours  of  retirement  and  devotion.  Cannot 
you  divine,  by  a sort  of  instinct,  those  who 
steadily  aim  at  bringing  all  their  common  life 
into  regular  captivity  to  the  law  of  Christ, 
often  at  the  expense  of  their  personal  gratifi- 
cation, but  ever  with  the  result  of  grace  for 
themselves  and  influence  for  others  ? On  no 
souls  does  so  much  precious  fragrance  hang 
like  the  glistening  dew;  from  no  characters 
does  so  much  hidden  virtue  go  forth  to  heal, 
as  from  those  who  walk  closely  with  God  in  a 
hidden  life  of  secret  devotion  and  self-govern- 
ment ; who  really,  longing  after  His  likeness, 
are  at  the  pains  to  strive  after  it,  as  well  as  to 
wish  for  it.  So  let  us  not  be  content  with  a 
low  standard,  with  the  faults  of  twenty  years 
ago  still  corroding  the  soul,  with  the  feeble, 
and  also  insincere,  wish  for  goodness,  in  re- 


204 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 


fusing  to  put  our  wish  into  action,  or  to 
translate  our  prayers  into  the  carrying  of  the 
daily  cross.  St.  Paul  was  the  apostle  of  justi- 
fication by  faith,  yet  just  before  his  death  he 
counted  not  himself  to  have  apprehended. 
Of  his  Philippian  converts  he  could  highly  and 
hopefully  write,  that  He  who  had  begun  the 
good  work  in  them  would  perform  it  unto  the 
day  of  Jesus  Christ.  Yet  of  himself  (and  was 
it  solely  with  respect  to  the  fruits  of  his  apos- 
tolate?)  he  wrote  to  the  Corinthians,  “ I keep 
under  my  body  and  bring  it  into  subjection, 
lest  that  by  any  means  after  I have  preached 
to  others,  I myself  should  be  a castaway  ” 
[i  cor.  ix.  27].  Who  looked  forward  to  the  wel- 
come of  his  Lord  more  ardently  than  he — 
“For  me  to  depart  and  to  be  with  Christ  is 
far  better  ”?  [Phii.i.23].  Yet  in  this  same  epistle, 
he  prays  that  he  may  “ know  Christ,  and  the 
power  of  His  Resurrection,  and  the  fellowship 
of  His  sufferings,  being  made  conformable  to 
His  death  ” [Piai.  m.  10]. 

Let  us  not  fear  then  to  use  the  language,  to 
share  the  misgivings,  to  accept  the  discipline, 
and  to  breathe  the  prayer  of  St.  Paul.  The 
Church  needs  saints.  Let  us  all  aim  at  more 


GLOR  Y. 


205 


personal  sanctity.  While  salvation  is  instant 
deliverance  from  the  consequences  of  sin,  it  is 
only  a potential  and  gradual  enfranchisement 
from  its  power.  Conformity  to  Christ  is  the 
aim  of  every  true  heart  that  really  loves  Him  ; 
and  conformity  is  not  reached  in  a day. 

mjN  another  way,  already  intercessory 
BJB!  touched  on  in  an  espe-  prayer. 
cial  feature  of  it,  we  may,  each  of  us,  though 
some  may  have  more  opportunity  for  it  than 
others,  glorify  the  Father,  follow  Christ,  and 
help  our  brethren  by  continuous,  secret,  fer- 
vent, intercessory  prayer.  What  a spring  of 
power  this  is  that  all  can  touch  ; for  prevail- 
ing with  One,  only  too  willing  to  be  entreated 
about  it,  for  the  illumination  and  conversion 
of  the  world.  We  all  remember  the  man  with 
one  talent,  and  we  seem  often  to  come  across 
him.  Occasionally  we  recognize  him  in  our- 
selves. Of  course  we  dread  even  the  idea  of 
using  prayer  mechanically.  We  have  heard 
that  people  in  Thibet  use  prayer-mills,  and 
the  grotesque  impiety  has  a possible  side  in  it 
for  us.  Moreover,  we  must  not  forget  that 
the  desire  to  pray  is  a gift  from  God  Himself, 


206  the  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 

usually  anticipating  His  own  purposed  fulfil- 
ment. Still,  what  might  be  done  in  this  way 
of  intercessory  prayer  for  the  Church  and  the 
world,  for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  and 
the  comforting  of  sorrowful  hearts,  and  for 
the  keeping  of  the  innocent  in  their  purity, 
and  for  the  strengthening  of  the  diligent  in 
their  useful  lives  ; by  the  poor,  who  have  no 
money  to  give  ; and  the  ignorant,  who  have 
no  culture ; and  the  insignificant,  who  have 
no  influence ; and  the  sick,  who  have  no 
health  ; and  the  leisurely,  who  have  no  ab- 
sorbing occupation  ; by  the  old,  who  will  soon 
change  prayer  for  praise,  but  who  cannot 
finish  their  life-work  better  than  by  fulfilling 
their  priestly  office  of  prayer  before  the  Lord 
for  men.  Oh  ! what  a strange,  new  force  and 
baptism  of  the  Spirit  would  come  down  upon 
us  all,  giving  preachers  a tongue  of  fire ; par- 
ents a holy  wisdom  with  their  children  ; the 
Church  a sort  of  spiritual  resurrection  ; the 
world  an  attentive  and  awakened  ear.  And 
it  is  ever  open  to  us,  always  possible.  The 
resource  that  never  fails,  the  secret  of  all  we 
need  and  desire — God  waits  to  listen  — we 
pause  to  use  ! 


GLORY. 


20  7 


Then  there  is  the  fellowship  of  His  suffer- 
ings, in  which  we,  for  His  body’s  sake,  the 
Church,  may  suffer,  not  only  for  our  own 
blessedness,  but  for  her  edification,  through 
the  sight  of  the  patience  and  faith  so  evi- 
dently imparted  from  Him.  The  faculty  or 
capacity  of  mental  pain  is,  I suppose,  an 
essential  and  inalienable  feature  in  a perfect 
moral  being.  It  is  inseparably  bound  up  with 
that  horror  and  grief  at  evil,  when  seen  and 
felt,  which  is  a very  part  of  God’s  own  nature, 
and  of  which,  just  in  proportion  to  our  indi- 
vidual share  of  it,  we  grieve  to  observe  so 
little  in  ourselves.  It  is  also  indissoluble 
from  that  quality  of  sympathy  in  a loving 
and  tender  nature,  which  is  the  noble  penalty 
of  lovingness,  and  which,  through  making  the 
sorrows  of  another  our  very  own,  thereby 
shares  their  anguish.  In  the  glorified  state 
this  potential  capacity  of  pain  will,  of  course, 
be  still  an  element  in  our  nature,  but  dormant, 
since  there  will  be  nothing  to  call  it  into  life. 
Now,  there  is  this  ennobling  feature  in  the 
pain  of  a holy  soul,  that  it  can  accept  it,  and 
even  rejoice  in  it,  both  as  the  will  of  God, 
therefore  beautiful  and  desirable  ; and  as  a 


2o8  the  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 

means  of  testifying  to  His  faithfulness  and 
tenderness  in  sustaining  His  saints  as  they 
walk  in  the  furnace  of  trial,  so  that  no  smell 
of  fire  passes  on  them  : and  His  nearness  is 
even  seen.  One  watching  by  the  side  of  a 
suffering  and  now  departed  saint,  whose  sim- 
plicity and  humility  of  nature  made  her  quite 
unconscious  of  the  lovely  moral  transfigura- 
tion that  a long  illness  had  produced  in  a 
character  naturally  beautiful,  observed  of  her, 
after  a long  night’s  tedious  pain  borne  with 
cheerful  patience,  “ Now  I know  what  the 
verse  means,  4 out  of  weakness  were  made 
strong  ’ ” [Heb  xi.  34].  That  sick-bed  was  a pulpit. 
This  is  but  one  instance  out  of  myriads.  So  long 
as  we  can  serve  God  by  activity,  let  us  do  so. 
When  the  time  comes  for  manifesting  Him 
in  weakness  and  pain  by  the  life  of  cheerful, 
dutiful,  uncomplaining  sonship,  let  us  do  so. 
It  will  be  easier  to  do  it  if,  in  some  measure, 
we  can  look  back  on  not  quiet  a useless  or  un- 
fruitful past.  Patience  is  harder  than  dili- 
gence ; to  sit  still  than  to  be  moving.  Yet 
the  sick-room  is  often  more  powerful  in  its 
testimony  of  a faithful  God,  than  a pulpit 
that  sounds  forth  in  sonorous  eloquence  the 


GLOR  V. 


209 


message  of  the  Gospel.  How  to  use  life  we 
can  all  understand  and  do.  How  to  meet 
death  calmly  and  meekly  is  a lesson  only  to 
be  learnt  in  one  way. 

■E,  too,  are  to  be  the  salt  Personai 
and  the  light  of  the  world ; influence. 
and  we  can  be  this  only  by  our  personal  in- 
fluence. We  must  not  object  to  Christ’s 
words  to  His  disciples  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  that  they  were  ideal.  Of  course  they 
are.  How  could  they  be  anything  else,  com- 
ing from  Him  ? How  could  anything  less  be 
suitable  for  us,  who  need  lifting  up  in  our 
low  personal  standard  to  the  perfection  of 
God? 

To  follow  out  the  figure  a little  may  help 
us  to  understand  what  Christian  influence 
means.  The  use  of  salt  is  to  preserve  and 
flavour  food  ; and  so  it  is  the  blessed  and 
noiseless  function  of  our  holy  religion  to  show 
that  goodness  is  at  once  possible  and  beauti- 
ful by  the  steady  effort  to  exemplify  it  in  our 
own  lives. 

The  Church,  no  doubt,  does  this  in  her 
corporate  existence  ; but  the  body  cannot  be 

14 


210 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


stronger  or  wiser  than  the  members  of  which 
it  is  composed.  While  there  is  a charm,  and 
a dignity,  and  a sense  of  oneness  and  sym- 
pathy in  corporate  action  and  fellowship,  there 
is  a snare  in  it  and  a peril  with  it.  If  ever  we 
are  tempted  to  think  our  brother’s  zeal,  and 
charity,  and  wisdom  sufficient  to  compensate 
for  our  own  lack  of  them,  we  may  discover  to 
our  cost,  that  while  it  is  good  for  him  to  be 
rich,  it  is  not  safe  for  us  to  be  poor.  Also,  it 
may  be  far  better  for  us  never  even  to  look 
at  work  for  Christ,  much  less  to  begin  seri- 
ously to  grapple  with  it,  if  we  intend  to  re- 
gard our  share  in  it  simply  as  the  amiable 
diversion  of  a vacant  hour,  not  a distinct  call 
from  Him  to  help  Him  with  the  salvation  of 
souls. 

Christians  are  the  salt  of  the  earth  in  two 
ways  ; and  the  second  does  not  always  com- 
plete the  first.  By  the  fact  of  their  privilege, 
and  the  use  of  their  grace.  Our  privilege, 
coming  to  us  through  the  proffered  adoption 
in  baptism,  is  this,  “ Know  ye  not  that  ye  are 
the  Temple  of  God,  and  that  the  Spirit  of 
God  dwelleth  in  you”  [2 cor. m. lq.  Springing 
from  this  our  duty  is  the  eager,  steady,  and 


GLORY. 


21  I 


faithful  use  of  that  grace  which  comes  to  us 
through  our  spiritual  incorporation  into  Christ, 
and  our  close  fellowship  with  Him.  “ Whoso- 
ever drinketh  of  the  water  that  I shall  give 
him  shall  never  thirst ; but  the  water  that  I 
shall  give  him  shall  be  in  him  a well  of  water 
springing  up  into  everlasting  life  ” [John*. m. 
In  this  figure  of  a well,  with  a constant  sup- 
ply from  which  others  may  drink  for  refresh- 
ment and  life,  is  the  mystery  of  the  reproduc- 
tive principle  in  a devout  Christian  soul — not 
only  the  indwelling,  but  the  outgoing  force 
of  the  Divine  presence,  the  witness  of  regen- 
eration and  its  result ; indicating  the  duty,  in- 
spiring the  motive,  and  supplying  the  power. 

Are  we  the  salt  of  the  earth  ? In  other 
words,  do  we  care  enough  for  this  grace 
(blessed  Gospel  that  this  is)  constantly  to 
ask  for  it,  gratefully  to  receive  it,  diligently 
to  employ  it.  cheerfully  to  share  it  ? Is  our 
baptismal  fellowship  quickened  and  growing 
into  a conscious  and  fruitful  life? 

I SAY,  let  us  be  salt,  and  strength  of 

I in  these  ways.  First,  let  conviction . 

us  act  out  our  belief  strenuously,  inces- 


212 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


\ 


santly,  fearlessly,  and  as  in  the  presence  of 
God.  What  hamstrings  every  man  in  his 
Christian  life  is  feebleness  and  limpness  of 
conviction  ; and  what  weakens  conviction  is 
the  spirit  of  the  world.  The  one  secret  of 
enjoying  everything  worth  having,  and  doing 
anything  worth  doing,  is  habitual  communion 
with  Christ.  Live  with  Him,  as  well  as  for 
Him,  and  your  love  shall  never  wax  cold. 
Then  aim  at  individual  work,  individual 
and  should  your  heart  slacken 
about  it,  suspect  your  position  with  God. 
Each  should  pray  and  try  to  be  personally 
useful  to  some  one.  That  one  helped  and 
saved  will  be  moved,  just  as  you  have  been, 
to  help  and  save  others  ; and  so  the  work 
grows  by  perpetually  reproducing  itself  until 
the  day  dawns  and  the  King  of  Saints  comes 
back. 

Then  recollect  the  power  of 
sympathy  with  others,  both 
what  it  means  and  how  it  soothes  the  lonely 
and  vexed  spirit  for  the  burdens  and  fatigues 
of  life  (see  p.  126).  It  was  the  peculiar  glory 
of  Christ.  Let  it  be  yours  for  Him.  It  is 
not  pity,  nor  bland  condescension,  nor  sim- 


Sympathy. 


GLORY ; 


213 


Inconsistency . 


pering  patronage.  It  is  tender  and  delicate 
love.  No  doubt  jt  comes  to  some  much  more 
easily  than  to  others ; yet  we  may  pity  the 
Christian  who  is  quite  devoid  of  it,  and  even 
more  his  friends.  Christ’s  gifts  are  manifold, 
and  each  has  his  own.  Yet  with  this  no  one 
can  dispense.  Ask  for  it,  and  it  shall  come. 

Lastly,  bear  in  mind  that 
nothing  in  all  the  world  will 
mar  your  work  or  dim  your  glory  like  incon- 
sistency. It  is  not,  indeed,  exactly  to  be 
called  sin.  Often  it  means  the  mere  doing 
of  things  which  are  lawful,  but  not  expedient, 
in  a spirit  of  mere  self-pleasing,  saying,  “ Am 
I not  free?  ” and  then  using  our  freedom,  not 
as  the  servant  of  Christ.  But  the  whiter  the 
robe,  the  more  darkly  each  spot  shows  on  it. 
The  constant  reward  of  a holy  and  devoted 
life  is  the  blessed  atmosphere  (a  real  spiritual 
glory)  that  constantly,  though  unconsciously, 
exhales  from  it.  Much  to  be  in  communion 
with  Christ  means  our  taking  Him,  without 
knowing  it,  into  every  company  we  enter. 
The  usefulness  that  never  ceases,  never  irri- 
tates, is  the  irresistible  charm  of  a holy  exam- 
ple. Only  a few  can  be  clever,  but  all  can  be 


214 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


good ; for  God  gives  His  Holy  Spirit  to  them 
that  ask  Him.  To  be  the  salt  of  the  earth 
and  the  light  of  the  world,  is  the  glory  of 
Sonship. 

„ . Finally,  and  as  I would  write 

Conclusion.  1 

these  words  on  my  knees,  under 
a profound  sense  of  their  importance,  so  do 
you,  Christian  reader,  ponder  them  on  yours, 
that  God  may  indeed  show  you  if  they  are 
possible  and  true. 

Christ  is  coming  back:  and  as  His  life  in 
Heaven  is  the  pattern  and  representation  of 
our  glory,  so  is  His  life  in  us  the  measure  of 
it.  As  He  revealed  the  Father,  and  was  His 
Father’s  glory,  to  the  world  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  His  purpose,  and  in  the  function  of 
His  priesthood,  we  too  are  to  reveal  Him,  as 
light  shining  in  the  dark  places  of  the  world, 
small,  feeble,  intermitting  it  may  be,  but  still 
shining  with  the  light  of  pure  obedience  and 
sweet  charity.  God  wants  us  all,  and  we  are 
to  shine  at  our  best.  The  salvation  and  illu- 
mination of  the  race  does  not  depend  so  much 
on  a little  company  of  gifted  saints  flashing 
like  light-houses  at  distant  intervals  over  a 
gloomy  ocean,  as  on  millions  and  millions  of 


GLORY. 


215 


humble  souls,  of  whom  the  world  is  both  ig- 
norant and  unworthy,  shedding  their  meek 
radiance,  like  the  stars  in  the  clear  sky  on  the 
busy  earth  below.  To  be  good,  to  be  kind  : 
this  is  to  reveal  the  Father,  and  to  confess  the 
Son.  Glorified  humanity  will  chiefly  be  made 
up  of  a mass  of  insignificant  people  who  have 
had  humble  duties,  small  resources,  moderate 
gifts,  slender  opportunities,  homely  presence 
and  limited  scope,  but  who  were  dear  to  God, 
humbly  followed  Christ,  and  were  faithful 
unto  death.  Let  us  not,  then,  think  that 
there  is  nothing  we  can  do  wherewith  to 
glorify  God  or  help  men's  salvation.  The 
life  which  has  most  of  the  future  in  it,  as  sus- 
taining hope  and  motive,  will  best  be  able  to 
meet  the  Master,  when  He  comes  to  take  ac- 
count of  His  servants,  will  have  the  best  mul- 
tiplied talent  to  give  Him  as  the  usury  of  His 
grace.  “ Good  and  faithful  servant  ” ; oh, 
what  a Gospel  this  will  be  to  hear  from  Him  ! 
Now  is  the  time  to  earn  it;  let  us  use  the 
time  well.  Christ  is  coming  back : and 
“ Every  one  that  hath  this  hope  in  him,  puri- 
fieth  himself  even  as  He  is  pure  ” [i  johniv.2].  Are 
we  so  purifying  ourselves?  We  talk,  some  of 


2l6 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST. 


us  a little  glibly,  of  the  joy  of  seeing  Him. 
Let  us  ponder  that  joy  with  an  unspeakable 
faith  in  His  tender  welcome,  yet  with  a rever- 
ent and  humble  appreciation  of  our  unspeak- 
able unworthiness : and  of  how  utterly  inade- 
quate our  present  conceptions  must  be,  either 
of  His  awful  holiness  or  our  littleness  in  His 
sight.  Oh,  I know  how  good,  how  gracious, 
how  gentle,  how  tender  He  is ; but  when  I 
think  of  Him  as  the  brightness  of  the  Father’s 
glory,  and  the  express  image  of  His  Person, 
and  that  one  day  these  sinful  eyes  shall  see 
Him,  it  is  a Gospel  of  infinite  gladness,  tem- 
pered with  an  unspeakable  and  not  unsuitable 
awe. 


“ I drew  near  to  Him, 

And  He  to  me.  O beatific  sight ! 

O vision  with  which  nothing  can  compare  ! 
The  Angel  ministrant,  who  brought  me  hither, 
Was  exquisite  in  beauty,  and  my  heart 

Clave  to  his  heart 

But  this  was  diverse  from  all  other  sights  ; 

Not  living  only,  it  infused  new  life  ; 

Not  beautiful  only,  it  beautified  ; 

Not  only  glorious,  for  it  glorified. 

For  a brief  space  methought  I looked  on  Him, 
And  He  on  me.  O blessed  look  ! how  brief 


GLOR  Y. 


21 7 


I know  not,  but  Eternity  itself 

Will  never  from  my  soul  erase  the  lines 

Of  that  serene  transfiguring  aspect. 

For  a brief  space  I stood  ; by  Him  upheld, 

Gazing,  and  then  in  adoration  fell, 

And  clasped  His  sacred  feet.  While  holy  tears, 

Such  tears  as  disembodied  spirits  may  weep, 

Flow’d  from  my  eyes.”* 

We  can,  indeed,  trust  Him  in  that  hour  to 
be  all  that  we  need,  more  than  ever  we  can 
ask  or  think,  as  He  fills  us  with  the  rapture  of 
His  love,  and  looks  us  through  and  through 
with  His  countenance  of  holy  searching  ten- 
derness. Yet  it  will  be  a marvellous  moment 
when  the  sinner  first  meets  and  sees  the  Sav- 
iour who  died  for  him.  Doubtless  the  sense 
of  sin  will  be  swallowed  up  in  the  joy  of  re- 
demption ; still  the  first  gaze  will  surely  be  of 
penitence  mingled  with  love. 

Christ  is  coming  back,  and  all  the  saints  with 
Him.  Who  of  us  has  not  dear  souls  over 
there,  who,  in  the  dim  distance  of  the  past, 
went  out  into  the  invisible  ? They  are  with 
Him,  and  they  will  return  with  Him ; they 
are  with  Him,  and  are  also  with  us. 


* “Yesterday,  To-day,  and  Forever.” 


218 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST . 


It  is  a characteristically  delicate  thought  of 
a living  theologian,  that  in  our  Father’s  house 
there  are  many  resting-places ; and  that  as 
here  one  vast  roof  over  the  common  home 
covers,  in  its  various  and  separated  chambers, 
the  diverse  families  of  the  household  of  faith, 
so  as  the  ages  go  on,  and  our  spiritual  life  pro- 
gresses, both  in  the  knowledge  and  service  of 
God,  we  may  move  on  and  up  from  one  man- 
sion to  another,  from  light  to  light,  love  to 
love,  kingdom  to  kingdom,  power  to  power. 

This  at  least  is  certain.  We  are  not  really 
severed  from  those  who  sleep  in  Jesus.  They 
are  in  one  chamber,  we  in  another ; God  vis- 
its us  both.  We  cannot  meet;  that  is  all. 
We  look  to  meet  presently.  If  we  want  to 
make  them  happier,  supposing  that  possible, 
the  way  to  it  is  more  and  more  to  get  our 
hearts  like  theirs,  saturated  with  the  love  of 
Jesus.  If  we  would  make  Heaven  as  blessed 
as  possible  for  ourselves,  let  us  do  what  we 
can  by  our  usefulness  now  to  fill  it  with 
thankful  guests.  Of  all  kinds  of  gratitude  a 
human  soul  can  know — and  it  cannot  be  fully 
known  till  Heaven  is  reached  and  Jesus  seen — 
the  deepest  is  the  gratitude  of  a soul  saved  to 
the  soul  that  saved  it. 


GLORY. 


219 

Reader,  and  this  is  my  last  question,  Will 
that  reward  be  yours  ? 

Dante,  in  his  “ Paradise/'  describes  the 
court  of  the  blessed  as  a “ great  white  rose, 
with  innumerable  leaves  in  innumerable  ranks, 
one  line  of  spotless  spirits  breaking  upon  one 
another,"  and  the  angels  fluttering  among 
them  radiant  with  joy. 

But  we  have  a more  sure  word  of  prophecy : 
the  Gospel  of  One  who  had  seen  that  Holy 
Place,  and  left  His  record  for  the  Church. 

With  this  Gospel  let  us  end : 

“ After  this  I beheld,  and  lo  ! a great  mul- 
titude, which  no  man  could  number,  of  all 
nations  and  kindreds  and  people  and  tongues, 
stood  before  the  Throne  and  before  the  Lamb, 
clothed  with  white  robes ; and  with  palms  in 
their  hands,  and  cried  with  a loud  voice,  say- 
ing, Salvation  unto  our  God,  which  sitteth 
upon  the  Throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb  ” 

[Rev.  vii.  9, 10]. 


